Dawning of the Next Generation
by LuciferIX
Summary: The sequel to my other fic, "How Lucky Can a Guy Get?" Advanceshipping, AAMayL, AshxMay, SatoHaru
1. Arrival

Welcome everyone to my tenth story, the long promised sequel to "How Lucky Can a Guy Get?" I actually had this started even before "Stars" was created but only finished it now, after about four different video game addictions. Including the demon that I swore I would never play for that exact reason, the demon known as WoW.

To be quite honest I am not expecting this to be as popular as some of my other stories for various reasons that I have witnessed during my time here at , but I still wanted a bit more of a completion of that two-shot and there were apparently other readers that did as well so I just had to empty my head of the different ideas and translate them all into script. I personally think that the story may be a little slow paced but as always I'll be leaving that up to you, the readers.

Before we finally start there are a couple last things. First would just be a reminder that as the sequel of my other story, it is in extension part of the timeline for "To Walk in the Shoes of Another" and there will be pieces in here that are referenced from that story. And the second would be the ever present disclaimer, enjoy the story.

Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with Pokémon or any of the related material. All names, places, and characters are trademarked property of Satoshi Tajiri and Pokémon Co. All rights reserved.

* * *

The sun was shining brightly as the family of five walked the short distance from the Pallet Town Port to their destination, the family home of the oldest member of the group. Even though they were a long way from home everyone was able to pack surprisingly light. The two heads of the family had years of experience beforehand of traveling and knowing what they needed and didn't need, while their twins had just finished a journey of their own and didn't have to do much to get ready for their newest one. Even still they were both so excited about following their father's original path they had everything ready weeks before leaving.

Accompanying the humans were several creatures walking alongside them. One, a large yellow mouse with a long lightning bolt tipped tail, walked next to his long time friend and trainer who was currently carrying the smallest member of their family. His wife had two Pokémon flaking her as she walked along, a golden-hewed fox on one side and a pink feline with a forked tail and a red gem on her forehead on the other. Even though she was the fox's rightful trainer the playful Pokémon seemed to enjoy the company of the man who actually caught her to almost anyone else. The final two that were following them were brother and sister, one a smaller version of her mother, along with her gem being a slightly lighter shade of red, while her brother was completely different from anyone else in the family. He was a little larger than his sister, in both bulk and height, but was completely black with only a few yellow rings around his body.

"Daddy how much longer til' we reach Grandma's house?" The youngest asked from her perch on her father's shoulders.

"Not too much longer Sarah, but before we get there I wanted to make a small stop at an old friend's house. I have something that I needed to drop off, and to talk for a little while as well," Ash told his daughter with a smile.

"Who's that Dad?" Alex jumped in, looking up at the two of them.

"Gary and Dawn Oak," he responded.

"Oak? As in Professor Oak?" Knowing that the name sounded familiar it took a couple seconds for the young girl to figure out from where. "Wait a minute, wasn't he the person who gave you Raichu?"

"Close, it was actually Gary's grandfather that gave me Pikachu. I know I've told you that story enough times but I have to say that it was the best day of my life."

"The best day?" His wife coyly asked.

"To that point," he carefully corrected. "But no matter what it is still one of the best. Isn't that right buddy?"

"Rai rai," the large mouse agreed.

"Guess that I can live with that, as long as our wedding isn't too far down on the list," May said to her husband, feigning a bit of annoyance.

"Nah, just second from last," Ash joked as May quietly laughed at the comment.

"It better not be second from last," she shot back with a smile. "But then again I guess I also don't consider it the number one day in my life."

"Really? So what was?" Considering how serious she sounded it easily peaked Ash's curiosity. Not as if he was worried about it or anything but he had always thought that nothing compared to that day, considering that May was the one who basically planned the entire thing from dawn to dusk, and of course she spared no expense in its execution. Even on things that he personally found completely useless.

"That one's easy, it was the day I met you." Leaning over for a kiss all three of the kids gagged in disgust of the sight. But as Ash leaned down to meet May he could feel Sarah's grip of the item sitting on top of his head start to slip slightly. Grabbing for the item she was holding Sarah nearly fell off of his shoulders, and she rightfully would have if Ash wouldn't have caught his balance right away.  
"Daddy! Be more careful!" She cried out bringing the piece back into her careful grasp.

"Sorry dear, I know how much that means to you. You really have been taking good care of that haven't you?"

"Yep!" She replied with a quick nod.

The item that she was holding was nothing more than a glass dome with a metal bottom, but it was what was inside of the glass that she was treasuring so much. Situated inside was a white egg with brown spots of various sizes spread around its surface. It was a Pokémon egg, and was an early birthday gift from her parents. Like its two older siblings, Espeon and Umbreon, this egg was from Sarah's mom and dad's Espeon and Raichu respectively.

It was becoming tradition now for Ash and May to give their children one of Espeon's eggs a couple years before they turned ten and got their trainer's license. While watching over them it allowed the kids to learn what they needed for their journeys in terms of taking care of their Pokémon so by the time that they got their "starter" it wasn't as alien of an experience for them. Not to mention that it also gave them a sense of responsibility that May was hoping for.

"So Dad, Gary was one of your original rivals right?" Jake asked as the gears started to turn in his head.

"Yep. Although we didn't have a good start when we began our own journeys, after we battled in the Silver Conference everything seemed to fall back into place and we became friends again. Even if he had an odd way of showing it at times," Ash laughed remembering all of the times that he faced Gary after the conference battle.

"I think I remember him. He was the one who got Squirtle before you and it was his Blastoise who lost to Charizard in that battle right?"

"Yeah that would be correct," his father said somewhat carefully, wondering what was going to come out of this. "So you actually were paying attention while I told that story. And here I thought that you were fast asleep through every single one of them."

Ash and May's two twins were always in competition with each other, not only with Pokémon but virtually everything that came up. While Jake was undoubtedly the stronger of the two when it came to battling, Alex was smarter than him when it came to Pokémon tactics and strategies for virtually any Pokémon that one could think of, and she was, to his even further resentment, still noticeably taller than him. So if there was anything that he could one-up her in what she was known for he couldn't resist.

"Of course," he gloated while sticking his tongue out at an annoyed looking Alex. "There are always reasons to make sure that I listen."

"Alright then, if you remember that story so well; who did I lose to in the Silver League Championship?"

Jake's smirk quickly fell and his face paled slightly. "It was, umm…Paul?"

"Try again."

"It was Harrison and his Blaziken," Sarah proudly stated.

"And it was from that battle that Dad decided to travel to Hoenn afterwards. Of course it was because of this that Mom and Dad met for the first time in Littleroot Town when Mom went to get her first Pokémon," Alex continued while giving a smug look to her brother.

Jake was completely speechless while his parents grinned to each other as they knew what was coming next. "How can you remember stuff like that? The only reason that I remembered who Gary Oak was because last night I looked back at Dad's old…" Jake closed his mouth immediately as he knew what just came out. "Whoops."

Alex saw her opening and grabbed it. "Whoops is right. That's another point for me dear brother," she said with the same smug smile on her face. "And the reason that we remember that is because like I said, it was the first time that Mom and Dad met. Out of all the stories to forget I can't believe that you don't remember that one. It was one of the stories that Dad told the most. Not to mention it was the start of how they fell in love, how could you not remember the start of a brand new romance?"

"Well sorry for forgetting…"

"Sleeping," Alex happily corrected.

"Whatever," Jake waved off with a slight glare. "Either way, why would I remember a story focused on romance? Yuck, who needs it?"

While the entire family laughed it was only his parents who noticed that the tone he used was different compared to what he would have said a few months ago.

Blushing at everyone laughing at him Jake looked up and quickly changed the subject. "Hey isn't that the Oak Laboratory?"

"Yep, that would be it," Ash confirmed for his son.

"Alright then, if I can't beat you that way I can still at least beat you there!"

Taking off like a shot Jake ran straight to the complex.

"Hey!" Alex called out as she chased after her brother. "You always do that to get a head start!"

Looking at each other, their two Pokémon sighed before following their trainers. Although by this point they were quite used to the stop and go pace of their travels and unlike their trainers they got along without any of the rivalry that they had witnessed every day of their life.

Shaking his head at the predictability of his children Ash looked at his wife and made sure that she was okay before continuing up to the nostalgic building. Unlike her siblings Sarah was content with just sitting on her father's shoulders, watching over her egg, and enjoying the scenery of Kanto.

"Here May," Ash offered his hand as they started up the stairs to the Oak Laboratory's main building.

"How many times do I have to remind you Ash; I'm pregnant, not crippled," she told him with an exasperated smile. "I've been through this twice before and I don't need you watching over my every step."

"And as I've said before, I'll stop when our newest child is sleeping peacefully in my arms," he replied with his own usual trademark smile, once again offering her his hand. "So until then I just have to make sure that I take extra good care of their mother."

"How did I ever wind up marrying a goof like you?"

"Just lucky I guess."

"Um, Alex and Jake are already at the top."

Looking up both Ash and May had almost forgotten about Sarah during their discussion. The couple began laughing, much to Sarah's confusion, and headed up the stairs with Ash leading his wife the whole way.

* * *

"I told you, I won!"

"What are you talking about? I won!"

"No you didn't, I did!"

Reaching the top the three other Kechums found a sight that didn't surprise them in the least. Alex and Jake were standing there with their Pokémon, bickering about who beat who to the top of the stairs. Watching over them was a blue haired woman with a small child, no older than five, hiding behind her. She barely came up to the woman's hips while her pale blue eyes and her shoulder length brown hair was reminiscent from her parents, but both features were somewhat hidden behind a large Buneary doll that she was holding up in front of her. The woman currently sported a rather annoyed look on her face as her eyes moved back and forth between the two pre-teens.

Loudly clearing his throat, the two children stopped immediately as their father approached with May and their Pokémon right behind him.

"Hey Dawn. Hopefully my kids haven't disturbed you or Gary," Ash said to the woman while pulling the twins aside. "As for you two, how many times do I have to tell you to stop fighting? Now you better apologize to Mrs. Oak for causing such a racket right outside her door."

The look in his eyes told the two that there was no room for discussion. Turning back to the blunette the twins bowed to the older woman before speaking.

"We're sorry for disturbing you Mrs. Oak," they said in a nearly simultaneous voice.

"Well I can't say that I would approve of my first impression after all this time but it's okay Alex, Jake. I haven't seen you two in years, you've grown since the last time I've seen you. You're looking more and more like your parents."

The twins quickly looked back up at the now smiling hostess. Neither ever remembered seeing her before in person, even though they have heard about her in several of their father's stories. But there was something nagging Alex that there was more to her than just an old friend of their parents.

"It's been a while hasn't it Dawn?" Ash asked as he turned his attention away from his kids. The blunette had aged graciously over the years since Ash was last traveling with her. She still wore her hair long but the white beanie was long gone, and in place of the outfit that she wore throughout Sinnoh she was currently adorned with a long white summer dress.

"Yes it has Ash. I believe that it was our wedding, about ten years ago, wasn't it?" Looking over at May, Dawn walked over and hugged the woman. "How are you May? I've heard that you are expecting yet another heavenly gift, any ideas on names?"

"Contrary to what my husband might believe I'm doing just fine," May responded with a smile as she returned the hug. "Everything is going as scheduled and there are no complications as of yet. As for the name, we think that we'll wait a few more months."

"Would you like to say hello to Mrs. Oak, Sarah?" Ash asked as she and his wife stopped talking.

Taking a moment the youngest Ketchum put a courteous smile on her face before bowing her head slightly. "Pleased to meet you ma'am, my name is Sarah Anne Ketchum. Daughter of Ash and May Ketchum."

"I don't think that you needed to keep the last part in there dear," May told her.

"My, what a polite daughter you two have." Bowing in return Dawn couldn't help but chuckle slightly at the apparently mature girl. "It's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Dawn Oak, an old friend of your parents and godmother of your brother and sister. Now I have to ask, where did you learn to talk like that?"

"Mommy and Daddy sometimes meet with very important people so they said that that should be the way I introduce myself."

"Well that's a good skill to have but you don't have to be that formal around here."

"Kay!"

The young girl hiding behind Dawn's legs looked shyly at the new guests as the woman greeted them. Noticing her for the first time Sarah looked down at the child and instantly had a big smile on her face.

"Hi! What's your name?"

Hunching down to bring both him and Sarah closer to her level, Ash put on a friendly grin as well. "And who would this pretty young girl be?"

"This would be our youngest daughter, Caitlyn. Say hi to the Ketchum family dear, they are old friends of Mommy and Daddy's." Without moving the girl just pulled her mother's dress over her head. "She's just a little shy. Now why don't we all just step inside and I'll grab something to snack on. Gary and Anna should be around here somewhere; I think that they'll be happy to see you."

Moving into the living room as Dawn headed off to the kitchen, it wasn't long before a thumping sound was heard and a blunette girl came running into the room. Making a beeline straight for May the girl stopped as soon as she got close to her. Taking a quick look over of May she quickly turned her head and yelled back out of the room.

"Mom! I thought you said she was pregnant!"

Slightly uncomfortable by the sudden appearance of the girl it was Dawn who came to May's rescue. "Now Anna don't be rude to Mrs. Ketchum."

Walking into the room with a tray of cheese and crackers along with a pitcher of lemonade Dawn set them on the table.

"It's alright," looking down at the young girl May couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm. "I'm only a little over thirteen weeks into having the baby, or what is known as the second trimester. At this point the baby isn't moving all that much and you can't really tell how big it is just by looking."

"Aww, I wanted to see her big belly."

"Anna!"

Laughing slightly as she sat down, May just waved it off. Huffing a bit Anna quickly turned around and walked towards the kitchen.

"Guess we're now even," Dawn said with an embarrassed look on her face. "Sorry about that everyone, she's usually better behaved but she got all worked up after I told her that you were pregnant May. But that would be our oldest daughter, Anna. Her tenth birthday will be coming up here in a couple months and she can't stop asking either Gary or myself about Pokémon or babies. And seeing as how Gary and I have no real plans to have another baby, her interest in the topic has only grown even further. "

"I know the feeling; Alex went through the exact same phase. If it wasn't for Espeon having her own two born around that time Alex might have been asking even more questions than she did. But as for who will be our newest addition to the family, neither of us were planning on having another child. It was nothing more than an accident that turned into a blessing," May said without hesitation, much to Ash's discomfort.

"And with that I'm outta here," Jake gagged slightly while getting up and starting to walk out.

"For once I have to agree with you," Alex added following her brother.

"Oh come on, you two barely even know what we're talking about," the brunette teased her kids as Dawn started to serve the lemonade.

"We know enough to be disgusted by it," the two said almost simultaneously again. "We'll be outside."

It wasn't just the humans that were keeping watch over what was going on. Groaning slightly after just finding a comfortable spot, the twins' Pokémon grudgingly got up to follow their trainers. But the two of them had been following their trainers every place they went ever since they were born, so it was almost as much instinct as loyalty at this point and it was nothing more than a passing thought at staying where they were. The others just simply laid their heads back down, relaxing after the long journey.

After hearing the front door close and thanking Dawn for the refreshments, May handed a glass of the lemonade to Sarah and her husband before taking one for herself. "So where is Gary right now?"

"He's probably in the lab finishing up some research, but I think he could take himself away from it for a little while to see some old friends. Caitlyn, think you could go ask Daddy to come out and meet our guests?" Dawn asked her daughter who was still clinging onto her.

Nodding the young brunette got up, grabbed her Buneary doll, and headed further into the house.

"So what brings you all back to Pallet? Last I knew you two were living outside of Lilycove City am I right?"

"Yep, just about a half day's walk to be exact. But as for our main reason for being here it's to see Jake and Alex off as they each start their next league here in Kanto, it just seems like a natural choice that while being back home to visit friends and family," Ash responded as he started to run his fingers through Sarah's hair as she cuddled into him while still holding her egg. "That and Professor Birch wanted us to drop off some results that he wanted Gary to look over."

"Brandon is still trying to get used to taking over his father's position instead of just being his assistant," May continued for Ash. "I believe that he wants to get Gary's opinion on a few of his theories and thesis's before diving into any of them."

"Gary has been getting pretty famous with some of his ideas so this isn't all that uncommon to see others looking up to him and he has been starting to turn down some of them so that he can actually work on his own projects. But I doubt that he'll turn down anything that you bring Ash."

"Yeah I think that was Brandon's mindset as well," Ash stated somewhat flatly. "As soon as he heard that I was heading for Kanto he nearly forced me to take these here for him. Not that I really mind doing it, it just kinda feels like I'm being used."

"Oh well, either way in the end it's always who you know that helps the most." Smiling Dawn turned back toward May, hoping to change the subject to something a bit happier. "If I remember correctly you said that you were just entering your second trimester right?"

"Yep, according to the doctor I'm thirteen weeks along as of last Monday."

"And it's about time," Ash muttered somewhat unconsciously, still apparently down from the last comment.

"What was that dear?"

Ash quickly recognized that sickeningly sweet tone. "Nothing May."

Even if Ash tried to catch himself Dawn caught it without much problem, "bad mood swings or something?"

"I had a few odd tendencies here and there, but who doesn't?" May tried to defend herself.

"Right, I'll admit that those are completely normal and I never had a problem with trying to find something you wanted to eat at all hours of the night. In fact I dare say that I enjoyed some of it knowing what the reason was. What I did have problems with were some of your more extreme mood swings."

"Example," May stated firmly.

"Okay then, how about the time that, for apparently no reason, you began to chase me around the house with one of your cooking knives? And then a few minutes later dropped to your knees crying about how I wouldn't come near you anymore now that you were pregnant. I would say that is a bit on the extreme side."

"Oh don't be so dramatic Ash, it only happened twice."

"Yeah and you almost caught me the second time."

"But none of this happened lately right?" Dawn asked nervously, wondering if she asked the wrong question and opened up a bad can of worms.

"Not yet at least," Ash quickly spoke first, noticing May's increasing anger at his comments. Realizing that it there could be some bad repercussions if he let it continue as is, Ash tried to at least remedy portions of it. "And even if I have some bad memories of those moments I have to admit that for some reason I still wouldn't want to change them."

"And why is that?" May asked, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Because to change that would mean that I would be asking to change you," he said with a small smile as he continued to run his hand through his daughter's hair. "And no matter how much you annoy or even scare me at times, I would never want to change who you are. I'm proud beyond what words can describe to say that you are the woman that I married, and I have never even once doubted my choice."

Looking back up at his wife, what little bit of animosity that she had for his original comments were replaced by teary eyes and a smile of her own. As he saw this the trainer gave a small sigh of relief and silently thanked the fact that the mood swings worked both ways.

"How the heck can you be that clueless little boy that I met all those years ago? No matter the situation you always know how to make me smile," she stated while giving him a playful smack on the back of the head.

"What can I say? I have plenty of experience in that area and know exactly how to push your buttons."

"_Both the good and bad buttons,"_ he told himself as an afterthought.

The two of them looked up at the sound of soft laughter coming from across the coffee table. Dawn was trying to stop but she just couldn't help herself.

"You two really are made for each other," she finally said. "And to think that I had a hand in finally getting you both to finally say something."

Ash and May looked at each other with a slightly self-conscious smile.

"Yeah that was an awkward day," May commented. "Awkward but definitely an eye opener."

Even in her half-sleep state Sarah was able to catch something in her parent's demeanor as May said that. "Mommy, how was that day awkward?"

* * *

Hope that wasn't too bad, as I've said many times before; I'm always worried about my work after a lengthy time in between stories. As per my usual I'll be following my constant update schedule of every other day. Reviews are always welcome for any reason and thanks for reading.


	2. Old Friends, New Rivals

Well first thank you to everyone who read, and even more thanks to those that reviewed, my last chapter. As promised here's the second one.

* * *

"So this is the famous Oak lab. I can't believe the amount of Pokémon that they have."

"No kidding, and here I thought that Dad had too many of them."

The two Ketchum twins were sitting outside of the main building of the Oak laboratory watching the nearly countless Pokémon of virtually every single type roam about the ranch.

"Do you even remember the last time that we visited Grandma here in Kanto?" Alex asked her brother. "Or even Kanto period?"

"Nope, every time that we see her she always comes to see us. Mom and Dad said we've been here before, but that was back when we were really little. If I remember correctly it was for that lady's wedding," Jake replied lazily while petting his Umbreon who was dozing softly right next to him. The afternoon sun was just starting to get to him and neither he nor his sister could really think of anything better to do than sit in the shade with their starting Pokémon.

"Yeah, and I'm guessing that you also caught that apparently that lady is our godmother right?"

"Yep, but then again I never really gave much of a thought of who our godparents are."

"Who would have thought that one of them was the famous Professor Oak?"

"Not me that's for sure." Sighing a bit Jake lay back on the grass looking up toward the sky. "So Sis, what do you think Kanto will be like? Is it going to just be like Hoenn or is it going to be something completely different? I mean we've been away from Mom and Dad for almost a year but they were still never really more than a day or two away as the Tailow flies. But here, we're in a completely different nation with unknown Pokémon and unknown trainers, with even less people to rely on. I hate to admit it but I'm even more nervous now than a year ago when we left Lilycove."

"Actually I've been thinking the same thing, but I just keep telling myself that Dad traveled through this place several times before, and while he wasn't always successful he made it through. Don't worry we can get through this just like before. And if worse comes to worse, Dad has plenty of friends around Kanto that we could probably ask for help from."

"Hey, you two! This is private property, what are you doing here?"

The sound of the voice made both the kids' heads shoot up while their Pokémon were quickly on their feet, putting themselves between their trainers and the stranger now approaching. He was a tall man wearing a long white lab coat sporting short spiky brown hair. He seemed completely unphased by the two Pokémon who were starting to utter low growls as he came closer. Stopping just short of them, the man had a stern look on his face as he continued to talk.

"What are you two doing here?" He asked them again. "This place is dangerous with all of the Pokémon around, you could get…wait you two look familiar. What are your names?"

"Why should we tell you?" Jake defensively asked as he and his sister got to their feet.

"My name is Alex Ketchum and this is my brother Jake," Alex stated, holding a hand in front of her brother to stop him, yet still apprehensive of the stranger herself. "We're sorry for trespassing but our parents are inside and we figured that just sitting here wasn't a problem."

Not entirely catching the last part of what Alex said, there was another piece that caught his interest. "Did you just say that your last name was Ketchum?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

The stranger's entire body posture changed as Alex confirmed his question, from a tense authoritative one to a more relaxed one, and started to laugh to himself.

"Well that explains a few things; Jake you take after your father almost too much, always jumping into a confrontation without even thinking about the consequences. Make sure that you keep him in line Alex; that single trait got Ash into more trouble than you could imagine."

"Um, do we know you?" Jake finally spoke up again, feeling somewhat insulted at what this man was saying.

"I'm sorry, where are my manners? I'm Professor Gary Oak, head researcher and owner of Oak Labs and Ranch. Not to mention an old friend of your parents."

"Wait a minute, you're Professor Oak?" Jake blurted out. "I would have thought that you would have looked a lot older."

Moments later Jake let out a cry of pain as his sister smacked him across the head.

"Think before you speak," she told him in an annoyed tone. Turning back to the professor she bowed down politely. "I'm sorry for my brother and for trespassing on your property."

"Don't worry about it," Gary waved it off. "Seeing as how you're Ash's kids it doesn't surprise me that you would be too interested in the Pokémon to think twice about anything else, even if that probably wasn't the case here. I was only worried that you would be hurt by some of them, not every Pokémon here belongs to a trainer."

"We're not amateurs," Jake said still rubbing the back of his head. "I got top eight in the Hoenn League just a few weeks ago so it'll take more than a few wild Pokémon to keep me down."

"Yeah but while he only got top eight I got top four in the Hoenn Grand Festival," Alex nonchalantly mentioned, much to her brother's annoyance.

"Hey, the league is far tougher than some Grand Festival!"

"It is not and you know it. You're just trying to make up for your own mistakes."

"I am not! Take that back!"

"Make me."

"Yep they're definitely his kids," Gary muttered as he watched the two bicker back and forth.

"Daddy!"

Looking away from the two siblings Gary found his youngest child running up to him, her Buneary doll still securely within her grasp.

"Well, well what brings you out here?" He asked as he scooped Caitlyn up into his arms.

"Mommy wants you to go inside to meet some people."

"Don't worry honey; I think I know who she's talking about. Besides I'm a bit more worried about those two right now."

Almost as if on cue the two twins quickly turned away from each other, arms crossed, with an infuriating "humph" directed at the other. Thinking quickly as to how to try and keep them from fighting again, a simple, yet hopefully effective, idea popped into his head.

"So are you two done or am I just going to have to give myself a tour of the ranch?"

Four eyes quickly converged on the young professor before looking back at each other. No matter how much the other infuriated them at times, the chance of getting a personal tour of the Oak Ranch was too much of an opportunity to pass up.

"Well I'm not sure about her but if it isn't too much trouble I would love to get a tour," Jake calmly said.

"If you would please," was his sister's straightforward response.

"Do you want to come with us Caitlyn?" The professor asked his daughter. "You'll get to see all of the Pokémon."

Looking at him she then turned and stared over toward Jake and Alex while stepping closer to her father.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Uh-uh," she responded while shaking her head before looking back at him. But before he could even turn around Gary could feel her tug on his shorts slightly. "Daddy, up," the young brunette said while holding her arms up in the air.

Chuckling a bit, Gary helped Caitlyn up onto his shoulders before starting to walk off across the landscape, the two trainers and their Pokémon in tow. He liked to be able to take a break from the time schedule of his lab work, and showing off the wonders of his grandfather's lab was something that he loved to do. Especially to kids.

"The Oak Ranch is the largest privately owned Pokémon Preserve in Kanto and all of the trainers who call Pallet their home had Pokémon stored here at some point in time, including your father and I as well as your mother."

"So this was where Dad kept the Pokémon he wasn't using while he was traveling?" Jake asked as they passed a large lake containing several species of Pokémon. "Even Mom left some here, even though she wasn't from Pallet?"

"That would be correct," Gary confirmed as he watched a Seel swim lazily past. "Where do you send your extra Pokémon? Is it to Professor Birch's lab or somewhere else?"

"We haven't caught all that many yet," Alex said in a slightly embarrassed tone while still taking in the beauty around her. "But the few that we can't take with us are with our parent's Pokémon near the Hoenn Battle Frontier's main stadium."

"Stadium?"

"Yeah, it's where Dad faces his challengers as the 'Arena Master' and head of the Hoenn Battle Frontier. He has a few assistants to help make sure that all of the family's Pokémon are well taken care of, seeing as how virtually all of his and Mom's Pokémon are there when they aren't at home."

"Well not all of them. See that heard of Tauros in the distance?"

Looking out over the plains to where the professor was pointing, the twins could barely see a cloud of dust billowing up on the far end closer to the forest.

"Those are actually all your father's, but he only uses one of them in battle and that's the one that he took with him to Hoenn, so he left the rest of them here with us. Technically he gave them to the lab, but in our books they will always be here if he wants them." Smiling as the awed faces of his two spectators Gary turned off and started walking down a small dirt path which led into a large forest. "Now keep up, you still have a lot to learn before you can set off on your own out here."

* * *

"So where did those two kids of ours wander off to?" May wondered out loud as she looked out across the ranch.

"Add to that my husband and daughter as well," Dawn joked from right next to her.

It was a couple hours after the family had arrived, and after losing track of time finally decided to find the ones missing from their group. As the adults scanned the horizon for their companions, Sarah and Anna stayed under the shade of one of the large trees. Anna looked over at her younger counterpart with a slight tinge of jealousy as the young girl gently rubbed her Pokémon egg with a warm towel while quietly humming a soft tune. As always, Raichu was laying right next to her with nothing more than an occasional yawn betraying his wakeful state. May's Espeon was curled up next to her mate, already asleep from the warmth of midday sun. Even after her last pregnancy ended, she was content with just spending the rest of her days relaxing with her mate and trainer, with a Grand Festival or training thrown in there for fun. The only one not present with them was Ninetales, who was sitting loyally next to her trainers, partially due to the fact of being the only Pokémon there unaffected by the warm day.

"I think I see them," Ash pointed out as several figures appeared down one of the paths. "Yep, that's them," he confirmed after hearing a couple shouts being fired back and forth at each other.

A couple minutes later the four of them reached the house, with Gary looking quite tired as the twins continued to fight.

"Ash I have no clue how the heck you survived living with these two," he finally said, letting Caitlyn down to the ground. "The small amount of time that they weren't actually listening to what I was saying it was nothing more than consistent arguing. At least I know that they are genuinely interested in Pokémon, much like their parents."

"Well as hard as it may seem they are actually quieter when they are at home. It's good to see you again Professor Oak," Ash jokingly mocked while holding out his hand.

"It really is Arena Master Ketchum," Gary replied in the same tone while taking a hold of his old friend's hand and giving it a hardy shake. The two quickly burst out laughing before calming down a bit. "And how are you May? Ash still putting the Pokémon first?"

"I'm doing just fine Gary," May responded. "And don't worry; we solved that little problem long ago."

"Hey I wasn't that bad." There was a complete silence that fell over the adults present and Ash looked from one to the other and to the last one. "You know there are times that I really hate you people, you do know that right?"

"And that is why we are called your friends Ash," Dawn said with a small laugh.

Sighing Ash looked back at his two oldest who were nearly oblivious that the tour was over. "So what is it this time?"

"I think it is currently back to whether being a trainer or coordinator is harder," Gary responded following Ash's gaze.

"That again?"

"Do they do this often?" Dawn asked as all four adults' attentions were turned to the two kids.

"Too often," May told her.

"Then why is it that Dad always tells us to make sure to keep coordinating ideals in mind when we're battling?" Alex yelled at her brother. "Because it is the harder of the two to keep in practice!"

"Oh please he only says that to keep you satisfied. Dad is a trainer, like me, through and through," Jake shot back without hesitation. "And being who he is, he would only be aiming for the hardest path to achieve his goals. Not some easy beauty pageant."

"Through and through huh? Have you already forgotten that not only has Dad placed first in all of the regional tournaments but he also has two Grand Festival cups?"

Jake opened his mouth to respond but couldn't think of an appropriate come-back, so he quickly shut it just in time to see Alex grinning with much confidence.

"That's right you have won a couple coordinating titles haven't you?" Gary rhetorically asked, stifling his laughter. "The great Ash Ketchum being precise and dainty with his moves. I can see it now."

"I only did it to expand my repertoire of skills," the trainer retorted, a small blush forming on his face. "That and I had a bet with May to see if I could even coordinate at an advanced level. My first few contests were a complete disaster and caused me a few embarrassing moments, but I eventually got the hang of it. Although I will say right now that the specifics of the bet itself will not be mentioned, for various reasons. Some of which couldn't be mentioned anyways due to some of the…well they'll learn eventually but not today at least."

Nearly losing his control, a stern look from his wife made Gary quiet down instantly. "Of course I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with coordinating."

"Of course," Dawn flatly stated. "So what are we going to do about them?" She asked, motioning back to the twins.

"Many times it ends by itself or they just get tired of arguing and a minute later you would never guess that they were like this," May said while shaking her head. "Though usually it ends…"

"Well I bet that I can beat you in a Pokémon battle!"

"… like that."

"Oh please, my Pokémon would be able to beat you even if I wasn't the one giving the orders," Alex boasted to a more and more annoyed looking Jake. "Anyone in our family would be more than enough to win."

"Well if you had Mom or Dad do it of course they would do better! Even I'm not stupid enough to think that I can go up against some of their strategies yet."

"Oh I'm not thinking about Mom or Dad," Alex told her brother with a sly grin.

Jake's eyes widened as he finally caught wind of who his sister was thinking of. "Oh no, I'm not embarrassing myself like that yet again. It may have taken me quite a few losses but I know the results. She's a little demon when it comes to battling and even you know that you have just as a hard of a time against her."

"You called?"

Jake jumped a bit at the sound of his younger sister's voice. Sarah was standing right behind him looking quite innocent with a big smile on her face and her hands behind her back.

"Wait, is he talking about Sarah?" Dawn inquisitively asked. "I thought that she was only seven, how can she already battle?"

"Ash has been teaching the kids through mock battles using his Pokémon for quite a while now," May told her. "While she technically isn't a trainer yet, she probably has more experience than most trainers have after they win their first few badges."

"Hey I want to battle too!"

Looking over at the one who just spoke up Anna rushed down to where the three Ketchum siblings were talking.

"Your dad isn't the only one who taught his kids how to battle. If she gets to battle I want to as well. Besides I want to be ready for when I leave in a few months, and who better to face than someone who's already been to a tournament."

"Well then how about we have Anna and Sarah battle," Gary suggested much to everyone's surprise. "It's not exactly what she wanted, but Anna can use one of my Pokémon and Sarah can use one of Ash's; that way it can be fair fight and both of the girls will get a bit of experience out of it. What do you say Ash?"

"I don't see any problem with that, at least as long as your Pokémon will listen to Anna."

"Don't worry, I've been preparing her as well and a few of my Pokémon should take orders from her just fine."

"Alright then what do you two girls think?"

"Of course!" Anna cheered enthusiastically.

"Yay! I finally get to battle someone besides Daddy or Jake," Sarah called out, giddy with excitement as well.

"Well come and pick which one of my Pokémon you want to use Sarah," Ash told her.

"Kay!"

The two girls eagerly ran up to their fathers to choose their Pokémon.

"I think that I'll choose him," Anna stated simply to dad, holding one of her hands out.

"And why doesn't that surprise me?" Gary sighed as he handed her one of the Pokéballs from his belt. "Just remember that he can be kind of temperamental."

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Besides she's two years younger than me."

"Just don't underestimate Sarah," he whispered into his daughter's ear. "She may be younger than you but if I know her father, she'll be a tough opponent."

The grin already present on Anna's face only grew larger. "I know what I'm doing Dad, you don't have to worry about that."

Looking back towards the Ketchum family the two could see Sarah asking May something, but couldn't completely make out what she was saying. Nodding once the mother smiled and told her daughter to look in one of the blue bags that they brought.

"Thanks Mommy!" Sarah happily hugged her mother before running back to where she was sitting just a moment ago. Grabbing the item she left there, the young girl quickly shoved the glass domed incubator into the hands of her father. "Don't drop it Daddy!" And with that she was already darting off for the house.

"Hey, I thought that we were going to battle!" Anna yelled out, wondering what the heck was going on.

"I'll be right back," Sarah answered her, barely even stopping to turn around. "I'm just wanna grab something first."

Rather annoyed at the sudden departure of her opponent, the young Oak decided to release the Pokémon she was borrowing from her father.

Appearing in a small flash of light the Pokémon stretched a bit before squinting to allow his eyes to adjust to the outdoor light. He was a fine specimen of his species and showed the care that his trainer gave to all of his Pokémon. Though he wasn't an unfamiliar sight in one sense; his black fur, yellow rings, thick tail, and feline movements were very similar to many of the other Pokémon present. And with the exception of size exactly similar to one other there. He was Gary's Umbreon, an old companion and well known by the professor's fans.

"Would you mind battling with me one more time?" Anna asked the slightly stoic looking Pokémon.

An old feeling began to run though his body as he heard those words. It was so long since the last time he battled outside of a practice match. It bought him back to the old days when his trainer was traveling in search of a challenge to push not only his own but his Pokémon's skills as well.

"Umbre," he quickly agreed.

"Great! Now we just have to wait for our opponent to come back, from whatever it is that she decided to do."

Not interested in just standing there and waiting, Umbreon began to take a look at the other Pokémon and humans there. While he recognized a few of the humans from long ago it was their Pokémon that caught his attention. The first one he laid eyes on was one of his own kind, an Espeon; she was quite a bit younger than himself but then again who really cares about that? But of course it was then that he noticed the smaller Umbreon laying next to her. Thinking that she was already taken he thought nothing of it and continued looking. A Ninetales and Raichu were next; neither was all that interesting though he thought that the Raichu seemed familiar somehow as he slept on the one side of the older female human, while the Ninetales didn't even seem to notice the Moonlight Pokémon at all as she snuggled up against her trainer. There was one last Pokémon that was there, and to his luck it was another Espeon. Slightly larger and older than the other one, she was laying near her own trainer relaxing like most of the others there. Deciding to make his introduction before the battle, the confident Dark-Type strode up to the Sun Pokémon.

Much to his surprise as he neared Espeon, the Raichu, who he thought was asleep, appeared to be watching him very closely, his tail twitching slightly as the lightning bolt tip swept across the grass. Glaring right back, he ignored the mouse and continued up to his objective.

She was obviously well taken care of as her coat seemed to shimmer in the midday sun. As he neared her, the Espeon slowly opened her eyes and seemed to nod, as if to acknowledge his presence, before closing them again and moving closer to her trainer.

Not the least bit deterred by her actions Umbreon continued to move in closer, but before he could get too close a quick movement from off to his side caused him to jump back in reflex. Sticking into the ground right in front of where he had been was the end of the Raichu's tail, glowing a soft metallic silver. The Electric-Type hadn't moved an inch but the reach on his tail was impressive. As he pulled it back several of the humans began laughing.

"Looks like Raichu won't take those advances lying down," May giggled as she saw the confused look on Umbreon's face. "I think you may want to find another more available mate next time Umbreon."

The realization hit him quick as he looked at the Raichu who was glaring straight at him. After failing to be impressed by any of his trainer's mate's Pokémon, the Moonlight Pokémon was content in waiting for someone to come around. It just turned out that the one he found was already taken, but there was something about that Raichu that got his anticipation up. Though those thoughts were quickly interrupted by a small girl calling out as she ran back towards the group.

Sarah ran back and stood by her mother for a few moments while attempting to catch her breath. At first it looked as though she didn't bring anything back with her but the one thing that was different was that her hair, which was normally unhindered, was pulled back into a single ponytail with a hair band.

"I figured that's what you were going for," Ash said to his daughter as she took one last deep breath. "So am I to assume that you're using your favorite?"

"Yep!" She stated quite eagerly. "He's always fun to battle with, and I know his moves almost as well as you do."

"We'll just have to see won't we? You ready partner?" He asked, looking over towards his wife.

Getting to his feet Raichu gladly walked over to his younger master, tail arched high over his back. Even if Umbreon appeared to not completely remember, these two had a slight history together and Raichu wanted to pay him back for the loss he received all those years ago. That and the fact that he had to at least keep Umbreon from trying to steal his mate.

"Your Raichu?" Dawn asked questionably as the Electric-Type began rubbing up against Sarah's leg while she scratched his ears. "Isn't he a little too powerful for Sarah to control?"

"Oh you don't have to worry about that one," Ash told her. "Raichu listens to her just as well as he does me. At times, maybe even more than me," he added with a chuckle.

Stepping up next to Ash, Gary watched as their two daughters walked a little further out with the two Pokémon in tow, the latter of which were glaring daggers at each other the whole way.

"So I guess we get to see this prodigy of yours in action," Gary quietly said to his old friend with a smirk.

"If you remember correctly I never once called her a prodigy," Ash corrected him. "I've just said that she has a lot of potential, even for someone as young as herself, and I can only wonder where that'll take her in the years to come."

"Say what you want, you may beat around the bush and haven't truly said it but I know what you are thinking, and it'll take more than just a bit of instinct to beat Anna."

"Who needs instinct when you can rely on luck and skill? She isn't like her older siblings; Sarah isn't locked into a specific way of thinking. She has a large perspective of things and it'll take her far."

"So you're saying that she is your favorite to follow in your steps?"

"We'll talk about this later," Ash finally said. "At the moment let's just enjoy the battle."

* * *

"This is going to be an interesting match-up."

Alex quickly glanced over at her brother, who just seemed to be mumbling to himself as the combatants walked over to a make-shift battlefield not too far from where they were sitting.

"Of course it's going to be interesting. Umbreon was one of Gary's strongest and Raichu is one of Dad's strongest," she told him in a rather informative tone.

"That's not what I meant," he shot back. "Raichu likes to use his speed to get an advantage and then strike with several quick, but not very powerful, attacks. Yet that won't work well against this Umbreon, his trainer has focused quite heavily on defense and it will take more than those small attacks to bring it down. Although I have to say that looks as though it prefers its left side."

Alex fidgeted slightly after hearing her brother's explanation. "They haven't even started battling yet, how the heck can you tell that?" The annoyance of his rather correct sounding statement hit her hard.

"You mean you can't tell?" He asked the brunette with a quizzical look on his face. "Just look at the way it walks and the size of some of its muscles. They don't scream 'speed demon' that's for sure. It's too solid, too balanced."

Looking back at the Pokémon in question, Alex could see that it was kinda bigger than Jake's Umbreon but just threw it out as it being older and more experienced. As for the way it walked she couldn't see anything different, at least not anything like he had just said.

"Now that you mention it you're right, it's almost too obvious. I don't know why I didn't see it in the first place," Alex lied right though her teeth. "But if anyone other than Dad could utilize Raichu's training to win it would be Sarah."

"Yeah, never could remember all of those stupid numbers and how they were all that different. She had us both beat to that one."

After seeing him turn his attention back to the upcoming battle Alex couldn't help but feel slightly jealous. She knew better than anyone, while he may have looked like a complete idiot, Jake's talent wasn't in textbook knowledge or complex strategies. His advantage came from being able to read the Pokémon. After watching them for only a small amount of time he could assume, with surprising accuracy at times, different details about his opponent. Usually it was how they were trained and what was emphasized for their battling, yet at one point she heard her father talking about how Jake might even be able to use that talent to predict a Pokémon's next move.

Sure, she knew that she was far superior in terms of strategy and being able to overcome most of her Pokémon's weaknesses but there were times that their dad told them that they needed to try and be several steps ahead of their opponents. And with the way that she had developed her training style it was primarily reacting to the opponent, rather than the other way around.

Of course she would never tell this to Jake, her pride wouldn't allow it. But taking a quick, yet deep, breath she looked back to see that her sister and Anna had just gotten to their spots.

* * *

Yeah I know, the battles may be a bit too much but I have my reasons for this one. And I'd be willing to bet that it'll be quite different from many of the other ones that are in fanfics. Please review and as always the next chapter should be up in a couple days.


	3. Light vs Dark

I'm kinda disappointed; nobody mentioned anything about Sarah running back to the house. Oh well, I guess nobody thought that it was important enough. And I should probably mention that this battle is a bit more fast paced than it sounds at first. There is a portion of text between the attacks but it would probably be too boring just to hear the names of the attacks being called out now wouldn't it? Well here's chapter three and I thank everyone for reading and/or reviewing my last chapter.

* * *

The two girls stopped in their respective spots to start the battle, their fathers' Pokémon standing right next to their legs eagerly awaiting the coming battle.

"Just to let you know I'm not going to take it easy on you just because you're younger than me," Anna called out to her opponent.

"Kay, cause I didn't want to take it easy on you either," Sarah smiled back.

Feeling rather offset about this girl's calm attitude, Anna decided to get things started.

"Fine then, for my Pokémon, as you can tell, I'll be using Umbreon."

"Yep! And of course I'll be using Raichu," the youngest Ketchum said while giving the Electric-Type a big hug.

After whispering a few things into his ear and receiving a nod in return, she released the Pokémon and the two combatants walked towards their own respective spots near the center of the field, both having confident smirks on their faces as they stared down their opponent. Yet the one thing that Umbreon kept his eyes on was Raichu's tail, the speed of which he got attacked earlier caught him off guard and he wanted to make sure that it didn't happen again.

"So are you ready?"

"Yep," Sarah confirmed with a nod.

"Then I'll let you call the first move."

"Kay."

With that one word Sarah's demeanor seemed to change slightly as she began to focus solely on the battle. "Raichu lets start this off with a simple light stance, number one please. Ready and use Charge."

Nodding the Mouse Pokémon closed its eyes for a moment. With a deep breath Raichu almost seemed to relax his body completely and within moments sparks started to fly out from his cheeks, arcing off of his body the electricity seared portions of the grass around him as his ears slowly began to perk up.

* * *

Hearing that attack Alex began to panic.

"Oh no, I completely forgot."

"Forgot wha… ah I see," Jake said as a sly grin grew across his face. "Come on Raichu let's see those sparks fly!" He quickly called back out across the battlefield.

Only momentarily shooting a look that could kill at her brother, the brunette began running over to her mom, who by this time had put her hair into a ponytail just like Sarah.

"Mom did Sarah…"

But before she could finish a loud cry from the Electric-Type rang out as the light around them grew bright. Moments after, several annoyed yells from the girls rang out, along with Jake's hysteric laughter.

Raichu's ears were now standing on straight up as the energy pulsed across his body, but they weren't the only ones that were doing so. With the massive surge of electricity from the Charge, static electricity quickly filled the air and every member there currently had their hair standing on end. Or at least it would have been but with Ash, Gary, and Jake keeping their hair short there was really no visible affect for them. While for Sarah and May, who had pulled back and secured their hair, the effects were minimal with just a few strands waving every which way in the wind. For the others there, there was not a single strand of hair that stayed in its normal place. And the reason for Jake's laughter was that all the hair on the sides and back of Alex's head were pretty much sticking straight out. It was easy to tell that the top was also trying to as well, but even with this amount of electricity it was only enough to completely poof up out of its normal style.

"Sorry dear, you were just a tad too late," May told her daughter while stifling a laugh of her own and handing her the third hair-band that Sarah brought back.

Mumbling about 'How she knew that she hated when this happened' Alex quickly took the accessory and tried to get her hair looking like her other family members. But the damage was done, and no matter how much she tried Alex just couldn't get it back to a point where she was satisfied. Huffing she made her way back next to her still laughing brother and their Pokémon, before sitting back down in the grass.

"Keep laughing and I'll make sure that you regret it later," she threatened Jake after a few moments in a tone that virtually dripped malice. "I don't have to tell you my rule do I?"

Starting to calm down, as he knew that was no mere bluff; Jake decided to get one last shot in before the end. "Yeah, yeah; I don't need your 'a girl's hair is her life' speech again. But remember, I had nothing to do with this. There are only two people at fault here, you and her," he finished off, pointing to Alex and Sarah respectively.

Only grumbling in response Alex tied to turn her attention back to the battle, once again finding herself wishing that she was minus one brother.

Seeing her frustration Jake wanted to at least get her completely focused back on the battle, if only to take even more of it off of him. "Although knowing Sarah she'll use any of Raichu's attacks to pull off a win, even if she has to use Rain Dance," he nonchalantly stated while looking back at his younger sister.

Alex instantly stiffened as she heard that.

"Mom! Did we bring any umbrellas?!"

* * *

Back on the field the lightning that was arcing around Raichu was becoming larger by the second. Before long Raichu's eyes began glowing white as a fierce snarl started to cross his lips. It was then that streaks of lightning began to appear out of thin air around the battlefield, formed from nothing but the large amount of latent electricity that was now in the atmosphere. Starting from virtually nowhere and arcing down to the ground, the stray electrons continued to char the area around the combatants. The crackling of the lightning and the small booming it was making as it arced was getting so prominent that it sounded as if a large storm was quickly approaching. Standing on his hind legs with his tail arched high over his head, Raichu was looking quite confident as he glared at his opponent.

Anna couldn't help but take a half-step back at seeing the Electric-Type in front of her. This was her first real battle outside of the practice ones that she did with her dad, and the thought that Sarah would be just like him was the only thing that she considered. But she never expected the cute looking Raichu to look like that, and to say the least it was a bit surprising if not outright frightening. The fact that her hair wasn't even in its normal position didn't seem to cross her mind, even if she did take after her mom in hair care.

"Daddy am I doing the intimidating thing correctly?"

"Huh?"

Part of the crowd couldn't hold back their laughter; having Sarah ask that question after the display that Raichu put on was too much for them.

"Sarah you're not supposed to ask that," Ash told her while barely holding back his own laughter. "You should be able to tell by yourself if you're going to use it. And besides, you probably shouldn't use it in friendly battles like this."

"Kay!" She called out, turning back to the battle. "Daddy just told me about this thing called intimidation a few days ago. He said it had something to do with making people scared of Raichu to get an advantage. I don't know how anyone can be scared of Raichu, he's always so huggable! But if Daddy says that it works then I thought I could try it."

"Right…" Anna stated with a bit of nervous laughter. At that moment the Electric-Type was anything but 'cute' or 'huggable'.

Unlike his temporary trainer, Umbreon wasn't even fazed in the least. Lowering his head toward the ground and raising his tail high into the air, the Dark-Type's eyes began to glow white as well. Slightly startling Anna, Umbreon continued his own efforts as the air around him began to ripple and darken. Umbreon was creating a much darker effect to his own image, in stark contrast to the flashy display that Raichu was putting on.

"You know how to use the intimidation as well!" Sarah happily stated as she watched Umbreon, much to the Dark-Type's chagrin. "So that that mean that your daddy also taught you that?"

"Um, yeah, sure," Anna didn't know how to react to her opponent's statement. Not only had she never seen Umbreon act like that before, but she had never seen a battle start like this before either. But then again the only real battles that she had seen, besides the ones with her dad, were some in the Indigo League last year and nothing higher. She knew that Sarah's dad dealt with much more powerful trainers than those of the regional leagues, but she had no clue as to how powerful or even how anyone battles such Pokémon.

"_I'm not sure what it really going on here but I think that is Umbreon's Calm Mind attack,"_ Anna told herself. Her dad had always told her to think ahead, and if she was thinking about that then she could push the images of Raichu to the back of her mind. _"And if that is Calm Mind then that means…let's just hope that she doesn't know that. Not to mention if this works then I can also get back at her for messing up my hair."_

"Umbreon use Shadow Ball!"

Opening his mouth the darkness around the Moonlight Pokémon began to collect in front of him in a small dark ball. As quickly as it formed the ball was shot, making a quick beeline straight for his opponent. Yet throughout this entire process Sarah was watching intently from start to finish, and as soon as the attack left the Dark-Type she was ready with her own command.

"Raichu dodge right, Quick Attack to get in close!"

As the black streak closed in, the lightning that was surrounding Raichu from his earlier attack quickly dissipated as his eyes returned to normal and his expression turned to an expressionless stare. With a swift dodge the Electric-Type easily avoided the attack and sped straight for Umbreon.

"Umbreon you use Quick Attack as well, we'll show them who the stronger one is."

Crouching slightly Umbreon took off right at the oncoming Raichu. While he may not truly trust all of the moves that his trainer's daughter calls out this one he can agree with. His opponent looked quick and that speed would also mean a slightly weaker defense. And he was confident that he could take the impact without much of a problem at all.

"Wait for it," Sarah whispered to herself as the two Pokémon got closer to one another. "Now! Raichu, ThunderPunch!"

"What? Umbreon dodge it!"

In mid-attack, electricity began to build up in the Mouse Pokémon's right fist and continuing with his sprint, aimed straight at the oncoming opponent. But the attack never connected. Even though Sarah called the attack right before the two hit, Umbreon had barely dodged by moving off to his left, skidding to a stop just a few meters from where Raichu ended up.

Yet Raichu wasn't caught off balance in the least. When the attack was clearly going to miss, the electricity faded from his hand and using all four feet as well as his tail Raichu skidded to a stop as well, turning in the process to keep his back away from his opponent.

"Wow your Daddy's Umbreon is pretty fast," Sarah commented with her nearly ever-present smile. "When my daddy uses that move it usually hits. But I think I know something that you don't know," she finished in a slight sing-song voice. "Raichu use the Quick Attack/ThunderPunch combo again!"

"My dad's Umbreon won't be hit by something as simple as that, dodge it!"

Taking off like a rocket once again, Raichu began focusing electricity into his right hand again. Yet both Umbreon and Anna knew what that meant. As he neared the Dark-Type, Umbreon easily dodged right with a slight grin on his face as the ThunderPunch harmlessly hit the ground in front of him causing a small cloud of dust to waft up.

"Left!"

The Moonlight Pokémon's eyes widened as right after the first punch hit the earth, another came swinging around from Raichu's left paw.

"Umbreon dodge it!" Anna called out, slightly caught off guard by the attack as well.

Not needing a second opinion, Umbreon unconsciously dodged left as the second attack just barely missed him.

"Sweep!"

Not truly understanding the order it didn't take long for him to figure out what it meant. From the corner of his eye Umbreon saw a fast moving metallic grey object moving across the top of the grass. With the attacks from Raichu's fists he completely took his attention off of the other end, his tail. Without even waiting for orders from his slightly stunned 'trainer', the Dark-Type jumped off the ground as high as he could in order to avoid the surprise Iron Tail attack.

"Left again!"

Before his opponent even landed, the momentum of Raichu's last attack brought his left paw back in front and aimed right at the Moonlight Pokémon once again. Barely even hearing the next dodge command, Umbreon was able to twist his body just enough to avoid another barrage of attacks.

"Tail!"

"Umbreon dodge it again!"

Without even thinking, as soon as he hit ground he jumped to the left; just barely missing the club-like blow from the second Iron Tail come straight down from above him.

"Come on Umbreon! Push them back with another Shadow Ball!"

"Deflect with ThunderPunch!"

Quickly finding his footing, Umbreon wasted no time in forming his counter-attack. Letting it lose just as Raichu turned to face him, the left ThunderPunch deftly smashed the attack into the ground causing minimal damage to its intended target.

"You okay Umbreon?" Anna asked the heavily breathing Pokémon.

Receiving an "Umbre" and a nod in return, the young girl gave a sigh of relief. In those few seconds she could barely even process what was happening and call out her counters. Though the 'sweep' attack completely confused her and she was glad that Umbreon knew what to do, cause by the time that she knew what to do it would have been too late.

Looking back over she could see the Raichu was panting slightly as well, but after a few deep breaths was back to normal, just moments after her own Pokémon did the same. Taking a few steps to get back into his original position, Raichu looked onto the two of them with Sarah right behind him, who was still smiling but not taking her eyes off of Umbreon.

"Yep! Just like I thought," she finally called out after a couple seconds. "Your daddy's Umbreon really is quick. And strong too. Most trainers get hit at least once or twice, but we missed everyone! But I was kinda hoping that we would miss anyways."

"Wait, you were hoping to miss?"

At this point Anna had accepted that her opponent was better than she had originally assumed but to hear a trainer say that they were hoping that their attacks would miss was something entirely new to her.

"Yep, but I wanna change things up. Raichu Heavy Stance four please."

With a quick nod of his head the Electric-Type closed his eyes for a moment before a light current flowed over his body. As the wave of energy passed it almost looked as if his muscles grew slightly as their tone grew more apparent. Opening his eyes again Raichu planted his feet down to the ground and kept his tail arch slightly over his shoulder.

"Umm, heavy what?" Not getting a response from the girl Anna shrugged it off, there was no use talking in the middle of a battle anyways. "Alright Umbreon, use Shadow Ball again. Let's try to keep them at a distance."

Powering up the attack again, Umbreon fired off the condensed ball of darkness at his opponent. But even as the attack approached Raichu didn't move from his spot.

"Deflect!"

Even though he didn't move as the attack neared, the Mouse Pokémon began to pump electricity into both of his hands causing them to glow slightly. Right before the attack hit he punched it harmlessly away and into the ground.

While this wasn't exactly what Anna was expecting it wasn't much of a surprise. Raichu used this method before after his earlier barrage of attacks so using it again wasn't unlikely.

"In that case, fire off several more of them Umbreon! He can't stop them all!"

Following his trainer's commands Umbreon charged at let fly several more Shadow Balls, but every one was deflected like the first into the earth. The precision that was put into each punch was getting better and better with each one he deflected. As it continued the attacks weren't just being deflected towards the ground. While they still hit the earth with virtually no effect, Raichu was slowly aiming them back towards his opponent.

Umbreon was even starting to think that continuing this would not only be a waste of time and energy but could soon start to back-fire as well. The attacks seemed to have no real affect so why not try something else?

"Umbreon Hyper Beam!"

Now that was a command. Stopping his own assault, a quick gathering of energy was all he needed before letting lose a powerful orange beam from his mouth.

"Raichu dodge it!"

From his current footing it wasn't easy for the Lightning-Type to move too fast; but with as much warning as he had that the attack was coming, the beam passed harmlessly past him. Missing him by just a hair.

"Aww, I was hoping that you wouldn't do that," Sarah pouted. "I wanted to see some more of your Umbreon's attacks. Oh well, I think I have enough to start Daddy's next strategy. Umm, which ones were they again? Oh yeah; Raichu, Light Stance four. Make adjustments to A35 and C16. Quick Attack."

Nodding with a big grin on his face, the Mouse Pokémon's body once again experienced a light wave of electricity flow over it as his body became less tense and more relaxed. After one last deep breath he took off like a shot right at his opponent.

"_Light stance? Adjust what now?"_ Anna was slightly confused at what she just heard. But even if she didn't understand it Raichu apparently did. Trying to put what she just heard behind her, the young Oak focused on what was going on in front of her. "Umbreon just dodge it and get ready to use Psychic!"

Jumping back to increase the distance between them, the Dark-Type started to focus on using one of his favorite attacks. Just as Umbreon's eyes started to glow a light blue and the attack was beginning to take effect, he was caught off guard as the mouse seemed to be moving faster compared to his earlier attacks and before he was able to complete the attack Raichu was already too close. But as the Electric-Type got close he suddenly spun his body around revealing a glowing tail aimed right at his opponent. Unable to get his Psychic attack focused enough to stop the Electric-Type's tail; Umbreon abandoned the attack in favor of a quick defense. By concentrating right where the attack would hit on his body he was able to make an impromptu shield just powerful enough to withstand the hit. Though in the process the force of the strike pushed him back nearly a meter as Raichu stopped right on the spot on all fours. Tail once again arched high over his body and a grin back on his face.

"Okay Raichu let's get the fun started!" Sarah cheered after successfully countering the Psychic attack. "ThunderPunch!"

"Not this again," Anna sighed. "Umbreon dodge it!"

Taking off once again with his right paw sparking, Raichu took aim and swung at his opponent. As like the barrage of attacks before, Umbreon dodged it without much effort. Watching the hands and tail of the Mouse Pokémon he prepared for the next strike.

"Tail!"

With the rotation from his punch still guiding him a sweeping body-level Iron Tail came across. Not even waiting for his trainer's command Umbreon dodged that as well.

"Straight right and then left!"

"Watch out for those ThunderPunches Umbreon!"

Finishing off the rotation, the next attack was a quick jab from the right paw; just as Umbreon and Anna were expecting. Getting more and more confident in dodging all of Raichu's close range attacks, Umbreon moved just out of the way of the right paw and then the left that came directly after.

"Tail!"

"Dodge again!"

Carefully watching his opponent the Moonlight Pokémon felt as though he was getting used to the attacks. Limited primarily to either a sweeping motion from spinning or straight up and down it was getting easier to figure out where to dodge. Watching Raichu turn his body slightly, the Iron Tail came from directly overhead. Moving backwards, the attack harmlessly hit the ground, putting some space between the two Pokémon.

"Kick!"

Wondering how any punch or kick could be made with the distance that he put between them Umbreon was caught slightly off guard as to what he saw. Staring wide-eyed, the Dark-Type watched as Raichu kicked up from where he was standing, and while balancing on his tail took a roundhouse kick right at Umbreon. Barely dodging off to his left, Raichu continued with his momentum and gracefully landed just over a meter away from his opponent.

"Tail!"

Tuning out his trainer's simple "dodge" commands, he felt as though he didn't completely need the other opinion and he didn't need to be concentrating elsewhere at the speed of these attacks. His real trainer had trained him to be slightly independent anyways so this was nothing new to him. Guessing as to how the attack would come, it was no surprise to see Raichu continue spinning to bring his tail back into the fray.

"Now! Left!"

Almost sighing as to how predictable the mouse was becoming Umbreon focused back on when the left paw was going to hit, but that wasn't what was coming. Twisting his flexible body, it wasn't a ThunderPunch on its way but another Iron Tail from above. Nearly catching the Dark-Type off guard he barely dodged it just as it came down, but before it even hit the ground Raichu began rotating again and it was then that the left ThunderPunch was aimed at his opponent. Not able to even think Umbreon instinctively dodged left, but that attack almost seemed slightly slower than usual. His answer quickly came as a faster right jab was aimed right where he dodged to.

This time he was completely caught off guard, and wasn't able to completely dodge the attack as it skimmed his left shoulder. Wincing in pain it was just enough of a distraction to miss the final Iron Tail coming from his side. The attack was strong enough to toss him back and tumble across the ground for some ways.

"Umbreon!"

"Raichu close in again, just a bit more!" Sarah called out to her Pokémon.

Thinking fast Anna remembered a combination she saw her dad use once. And considering what Raichu's reaction to something like this was before, it might just work. "Umbreon use Shadow Ball then you know what to do!"

Nearly smiling at hearing those words he did know what to do. Tossing another shadowy ball at Raichu he tried to put as much power into it as he could manage in the short charge time. Sure enough without thinking the advancing Electric-Type punched it down to the ground like the rest of them. But with all the extra energy that Umbreon put into it, when the attack hit the ground a small explosion caused a large dust cloud to billow up. Stopping his attack, Raichu jumped back a bit in an effort to protect his eyes from the dust and debris.

Just as the sediment was clearing and their opponent came into sight, countless numbers of bright white orbs began shooting off from around Umbreon's body. But what was odd about this was that the orbs shot off from all directions, not just towards Raichu. It wasn't until they started to curve that the real intention of the attack was made. Curling around from every which way, the orbs began to close in on their target from virtually every side.

Sarah was watching the attack closely from when it shot out of the cloud of dust, but it wasn't until they began to turn that her eyes widened.

"Raichu Heavy Stance seven! Release the Charge!" She hastily shouted.

Just as the young Ketchum began saying that, massive amounts of electricity began to course over the Mouse Pokémon's body as it once again gained a very clear muscle tone. Concentrating all of that power into one fist and with a loud cry Raichu struck the ground in front of him causing an explosion of rock and electricity to rocket skywards, completely surrounding him in the powerful attack.

All the spectators had to cover their eyes and look away as the light from Raichu's attack became unbearable. But if one was able to look directly at it, the white orbs that were once dangerously close to the Electric-Type were detonating before they reached their target as they came in contact with either the shattered rock or powerful wall of energy.

As fast as the defense was put up, it was gone. The dust from the attack billowed outwards obscuring sight for almost everyone there. After a few moments it started to clear from Anna and Umbreon's side and to the girl's relief her Pokémon was completely unhurt, just winded from using the attack. It was the other side that she now wondered about. The dust was still quite thick though a light breeze was clearing it rather quickly. The sound of small rocks hitting the ground was all that could be heard until a voice pierced the battlefield.

"Thunderbolt!"

Shooting out of the cloud, a line of electricity hit the ground near Umbreon. It was close enough that he had to take a small jump away but even if he didn't it wasn't accurate enough to cause too much damage. But for firing completely blind the aim was rather impressive.

The Dark-Type let out a soft growl as he knew neither attack had finished off his opponent. As the last of the dust disappeared his assumptions were confirmed. Yet Raichu appeared to not have come out of it unscathed. He was panting heavily trying to catch his breath and countless small vertical scratches and cuts were present across his body. But with all of those wounds he didn't even seem to notice any of them to the extent that one might think by just looking at him. In fact all of the cuts were not nearly as bad as they first appeared, almost as if his body was becoming accustomed to them.

As his breathing slowed, pulses of electricity flared around him as his body readjusted to the considerably less voltage it now stored. Within a few moments he was breathing normally again staring right at his opponent with a grin back on his face.

"Wow I didn't realize that your daddy's Umbreon could use Hidden Power like that," Sarah said, dusting off her dress from some of the remaining debris. "Kay! If you're going all out then we need to speed up as well!" Flashing her innocent smile for only a moment, she brought her finger up to her lips as if apparently deep in thought. "Now which number was that one again?" She asked herself unconsciously. "Oh I remember now. Raichu Light Stance 19, make adjustments to A52 and B23. Ready on my mark."

Like before, a light wave of energy flowed across Raichu's body as his muscle tone disappeared. The large mouse then began to calmly jump up and down on his hind legs, contorting his body in ways that only a mouse could. Flexing his back and muscles as if to stretch them out a bit until he finally found a slow but steady rhythm and just simply hopped up and down, eagerly awaiting his next command.

* * *

Like I said, a little different than most battles you might have read. But there's still more to go. One thing that I will have to mention is that due to the Easter weekend I won't be posting the next chapter until Monday afternoon (North American time) or in other words three days from this posting. While I could post it on the normal day it just seems that people would probably like to be with family more than reading fanfiction. Thanks for reading and as always reviews are welcome for any reason you feel like. And everyone have a Happy Easter.


	4. One Last Hit

Sorry that this is a little later in the day than I have done so far but I got caught up with something. And seeing as how I have this written on my laptop, which I have to find my wireless card to get access to the internet on, I usually transfer it to my desktop via flash drive so it was a little bit of a hassle that I just kept on putting off.

Well, enjoy. And of course thank you to all who read and reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

"Right, left, left, right, tail, kick, right, right, left, tail, tail, tail, down, kick, sweep!"

As fast as the orders were being issued Raichu was doing exactly as said, creating a barrage of attacks in which his opponent could do nothing but try to dodge. But unlike before every once and a while one of the attacks would come unexpectedly and score a direct hit. Thankfully for Umbreon while the attacks were fast there wasn't much power behind each one. But even if they weren't doing too much damage, the number of attacks that he found he was unable to dodge was slowly increasing.

"Raichu, adjustment A59! Iron Tail!"

A loud sigh was heard from the audience of family members as they all continued to watch the fight progress.

"Even if it isn't Dad's favorite tactic, by just watching Raichu I'd swear that he was the one battling," Jake said while holding back a yawn. "It looks as though Sarah has finally gotten used to Umbreon and is starting to take the offensive, but she's still not taking it all that seriously. As always this is nothing but one large game to her. Especially when she's using one of Dad's Pokémon; you show her a move she doesn't expect and she'll just kick it into the next gear. I'd hate to be in Anna's shoes right now."

"You're just saying that cause she already has your Umbreon and Sceptile more-or-less figured out by now," Alex shot out at her brother without taking her eyes off the fight. "Besides you would also hate having to wait until she actually starts attacking for real, you always want to finish your battles as fast as possible, impatient as always."

"Yeah cause unlike you I can't come up with strategies out of nowhere," he muttered under his breath. "If I could do that I may have actually made it further in the Hoenn League. You don't know how lucky you are."

"Did you say something?"

"Nope, you must just be hearing things."

Giving him an odd look Alex just focused her attention back to the battle where Umbreon has just tried for anther counter-attack.

"Actually if you two don't mind I have a few questions I'd like to ask you."

With their attention to each other and the battle, the two twins didn't even notice Professor Oak sit down next to them a few moments ago.

"About what?" Alex asked.

"About how your sister battles."

"I'm guessing you mean all those numbers and whatnot right? She's just entirely using Dad's strategies, right down to the Adjustment System. If you want to know how they work if would be best to ask him," Jake told his godfather in a slightly annoyed tone. But it wasn't because of Gary's question in particular; there were too many inferences that he was making along with it that made him a little testy.

"I could but I think that I would rather hear it from you two instead of Ash," he told them, a kind smile making its way across his face.

"Alright then," Alex spoke up. "Although I'm not sure if we can tell you everything that you would want to know."

"That's okay, anything is fine. I'm just a little curious. First of all what the heck was the move that Raichu used just a little while ago? The one that Sarah used to block Umbreon's Hidden Power."

"That? That would be Raichu's most powerful combos. I believe that Dad calls it a '360 degree emergency defense', or something like that. It was meant to be just that, an emergency defense move to protect Raichu from a powerful attack coming at multiple sides, but in the process it turned out to be an efficient finisher move as well. There have been more than a few trainers who have gone up against Raichu in close combat early on in the battle just to lose a Pokémon in seconds," Alex finished up, laughing slightly remember the looks on the faces of some of those trainers. "The only problem is that it uses most of Raichu's electricity, even after charging, and the explosion that he creates to help block the attacks causes problems for him as well."

"Ash has some good moves up his sleeve," Gary said to himself with a small smirk. "Okay then how about those Light and Heavy Stances that Sarah is calling out? And on that same note, those adjustments too."

"Well…" Looking cautiously over at her father, a grin and a small nod from him were all she needed to continue. "Alright, I don't know everything about them but those are Dad's main strategies that he uses as a Frontier Brain."

"Main strategies?"

"Yep. The stances are something that is unique to only Raichu, without directly telling him they can explain how he should be battling and to confuse the opponent. Um, I'm going to try and explain this as Dad does so I'm not sure how clear it'll be but I'll try my best. Let's see, the strategy is divided into many different commands, starting with the general separation of the light and the heavy stances. Light stances focus on speed and mobility while sacrificing physical power and defense. Heavy stances are the exact opposite, focusing on power and defense while sacrificing speed and mobility. I think that there's more differences between the stances than just that but those are all I know. Each of these is then divided further and given numbers; with the exception of duplicates to keep people from figuring them all out, each number is a different strategy complete with its own set of favored moves, execution, and code words."

"Code words?"

"Um, well the best way to explain it is that saying one attack can mean something completely different."

"Mind giving me an example?"

"Alright, let's say that you tell Raichu to use Iron Tail. In one stance it simply means to use Iron Tail coming straight down, in another it means to use Iron Tail in a sweeping motion and then right into a ThunderPunch, and in even another it just simply means to use Volt Tackle. But the real confusing part is when he switches stances nearly every other attack, that's when it really gets hard to follow. Even we have a hard time figuring out what is coming next, and we've been watching him use this for years. I'd hate to imagine what his challengers think at that point."

"Ash came up with that?" Gary somewhat blurted out unconsciously, taking a moment to remember that he wasn't the brash trainer that many people still thought of him as.

"He didn't gain the title of Arena Master for nothing," Alex responded with a smile, showing every ounce of her pride in those words.

"So then how many of these stances are there?"

"Um, well between the two of us, Jake and I know around 15 with about twice that number in ones that we get the general idea of. But as for the total number, I think Dad said that there were over 100 of them."

"Over 100? And Ash and Raichu remember them all?" Receiving a nod in return he couldn't help but indulge his curiosity a bit more. "Then how many does Sarah know? Because from what I can see she is pretty proficient with them, and has been switching between them without too much thought."

"If I were to take a guess I'd say probably about 40 or 50 of them. She can figure them out almost too easily it seems at times."

"Like I said earlier, demon is a good description for…ow! What was that for?!"

"You should know by now not to talk about our younger sister like that dear brother," Alex warned him along with another smack across the head.

"Maybe, but then again it fits you too, for other reasons…" He muttered while rubbing the back of his head. "Sisters, who needs 'em."

Shaking his head at the two Gary wanted to see if he couldn't get that one last question answered. "Then what about those adjustments that Sarah keeps calling out?"

Looking back at him the professor, Alex couldn't hide the very embarrassed look on her face. "To be quite honest, I'm not entirely sure."

"You're not sure? How come?"

"Cause Dad doesn't teach us these types of strategies without any effort on our part. We have to figure out how they work by ourselves, and only until we figure them out to a certain point will he then start teaching us how to use them. And even then, once one of us figures out one of his advanced strategies he won't teach it to the other two. Sarah was the one who was somehow able to figure this one out, not me. But what little I can tell you is that this is a strategy that Dad uses for all of his Pokémon, not just Raichu. What makes it so hard is how cryptic it is, you really can't tell anything by just hearing it or casually watching the battle. Well to compare it to Raichu's stances, the stances would be how Raichu should move while the adjustments are how Raichu should expect his opponent to move."

"Huh?"

"The only one that I somewhat know is the A adjustment. Depending on the number after it, it'll tell the Pokémon which way his opponent likes to dodge. I may not be as good as Dad or Sarah but I can tell that your Umbreon likes to dodge to its left when caught by an unexpected neutral attack, one that doesn't favor any side. This was one of the more advanced things that Dad taught us before mainly just supervising our training. Each Pokémon has movements that it does when it isn't thinking and will do them on instinct. If you can figure these out then it is just another way to predict your enemy. You just have to force them into a position where they don't think, only act. 'It's at that point where you can see what the Pokémon is really like,' or so he says."

"And that's all you know?"

"Yep, sorry but these are two of Dad's famous, and strongest, strategies and he isn't willing to let go of them too easily."

"Wow Ash has really changed since I last battled him; I think I might actually have to try next time."

"Oh please you wouldn't stand a chance," Alex blurted out without thinking. As soon as she realized what she said her hands quickly went to cover her mouth. Looking back she only saw the professor laughing.

"Yeah you're probably right. I'm not much of a battler anymore, I do research and my Pokémon either just help me out or relax outside. Although you really think highly of your father don't you?"

"Of course," she replied sheepishly. "Even if I want to follow in Mom's footsteps, Dad is still one of the best trainers in Hoenn, on par with the Elite Four. He's even competed as a coordinator and won several Grand Festivals. There aren't a lot of trainers who have successfully completed the whole Hoenn Battle Frontier, and Dad is one of the reasons for it. Even in school I overheard many of my friends claiming that they would one day get good enough to face my Dad and beat him. Not to mention he's all I could ask for in a dad, even with two other kids he always finds time for just the two of us doing only what I want for the day. Of course that's not to say that Mom doesn't do the same but, how could I not be proud to call him my father?"

"Now that I can easily see, just remember that as you grow up Alex. You really are very lucky; you, your brother, and your sister."

Though he wasn't really participating in the conversation Jake couldn't help but let a smile come to his face after hearing that. Alex took the words right out of his mouth, and he too was proud beyond words to say that _the_ Ash Ketchum was his dad.

"Yep, I know. And I don't think that it'll be hard to remember that."

"Feint Attack!"

* * *

Raichu recoiled and fell to all fours as Umbreon appeared off to his right side and hit him square in the back. Trying to counter with his tail brought about no such luck as Umbreon was already out of range by the time he recovered enough to make the strike.

"Heh, looks like we finally found a way around his speed," Anna muttered with a cocky smirk. "Even if we seem to be having a harder time dodging their attacks, Feint Attack will hit no matter how they move."

"Raichu, Heavy Stance seven."

At this point in the battle Anna had gotten used to Sarah's lack of surprise to her moves, but even if she was used to them it didn't mean that it didn't annoy her. No matter what she did, Sarah would either just smile or continue keeping an eye on Umbreon. It was only in the young brunette's silence that told Anna she made a good move.

"Alright Umbreon keep up with the Feint Attacks!"

Grinning at the Electric-Type, who at this point was as silent as his trainer, Umbreon charged forward once again.

"Raichu try to hit him with ThunderPunch before he moves!" Sarah called out as the Moonlight Pokémon started to get close.

Nodding Raichu charged up another punch but before he could even swing it his opponent disappeared from sight only to wind up striking him in the back from the opposite side as the first.

Wincing in pain Raichu spun around and lunged forward with his attack only to swing through thin air as Umbreon returned to his original spot near Anna.

"Again!"

"Brace yourself Raichu and use Iron Tail!"

Once again the black Pokémon darted forward as the mouse Pokémon planted himself into as strong a footing as he could muster. As the Dark-Type disappeared from view, it was only a short second latter he was back behind Raichu and got off a powerful hit again. But even steadied as he was Raichu wasn't able to counter fast enough before his opponent was retreating back to a safe distance.

"They can't even defend themselves," Anna stated with a rather curious tone, wondering if this was some trap or whatnot. Deciding that there wasn't enough to fear from what she had seen of their reaction so far, the smile on the blunette's face only grew wider. "I think we may have won this! Umbreon finish them off with another one!"

"Raichu ready a ThunderPunch and wait for my order."

As before Umbreon charged forward as Raichu's paws pulsed with electricity, ready for his next command.

"Raichu, left side! Hit him now!" Sarah called out with only a slight hesitation as Umbreon disappeared from their sight.

Not understanding as to why, the Electric-Type didn't even hesitate to follow the order. Spinning around, Umbreon was just fading back into view as Raichu's punch was aimed right where he was. But he was just a fraction of a second too slow as his rival was able to just barely dodge it and hit him in the stomach while the ThunderPunch continued on and hit the ground.

Jumping back to his original spot, Umbreon's legs suddenly buckled as he felt an odd sensation flow from his left shoulder. The entire left side of his body went numb, mainly in his shoulder where the ThunderPunch just grazed his fur. Growling at his adversary he tried to shake off the feeling to become mobile again. He could only wonder what would have happened if that had actually hit.

Sarah's entire body relaxed slightly as she watched the Dark-Type recover from the near miss.

"I don't think you should use that move anymore, kay?" She called out to Anna. "You'll only hurt Umbreon more if you do."

"She's joking right?" Anna mumbled to herself. "I mean that had to have been a fluke. Yeah, a lucky shot, nothing more. Feint Attack can't be dodged, you can't dodge what you can't see right? Don't listen to her Umbreon! We can still win this! We just need one good shot! Feint Attack!"

Anna was right about one thing, Raichu was panting heavily as he was trying to recover what bit of electricity he could. The combination of his earlier offensive along with the Feint Attacks was taking their toll on even him. But as with all of Pikapi's family, he trusted what they said without question. If Sarah said that it would only hurt Umbreon to do the attack again then he saw no reason to see otherwise.

"Left side!" The brunette called out again, just before Umbreon completely disappeared from sight.

Sure enough, swinging himself around, attack readied, he was face to face with a surprised Umbreon. Yet unlike before, the mouse was able to connect first. Throwing his entire weight into the attack, Umbreon quickly collapsed to the ground.

"Umbreon Flash!"

Just as Raichu was about to make the finishing blow a bright flash of light erupted from the Dark-Type's body, temporarily blinding everyone there. By the time it dimmed down to normal Umbreon was back on his side again, body glowing softly as his some of his minor wounds began to heal.

"_Okay Moonlight will only be able to help a little bit at this point, but who would have thought that she could actually stop a Feint Attack like that?"_ Anna thought as Raichu stopped rubbing his eyes. _"We need to win this fast, neither Pokémon can go much longer. Besides I can't lose now, not only is she younger than me but Dad would be disappointed in letting Umbreon lose after letting me battle with him."_

"Raichu Heavy Stance 33 please," Sarah called out, interrupting Anna's thoughts.

* * *

"Huh? There isn't a Heavy Stance…"

Jake's voice quickly turned to nothing but muffled sounds as Alex covered her brother's mouth with her hand.

"Quiet," she harshly whispered, trying not to catch anyone's attention. "You don't need to give away…ewww gross!" The coordinator called out as she pulled her hand away from his mouth and hastily wiped it on the grass. "You licked my hand you little…"

"Well maybe next time you won't use it to cover my mouth," her brother replied with a snide grin.

"You do know that I will get you back for this right?"

* * *

After taking a few deep breaths the Electric-Type's body pulsated with energy, toning it down to a slimmer shape. When he opened his eyes, he too was ready to continue; though at this point it couldn't be for too much longer. With all the changes in electricity as well as fatigue rolling in, he didn't have much strength left.

"_I think I'm getting the hang of these stance things. When she uses the light ones Raichu moves around a lot more while in heavy he primarily stays still. Using Feint Attack is out of the question, but the last time she used the heavy one she swapped out quickly after the Hyper Beam. So maybe we just have to use a powerful hit when they aren't expecting it. One good hit from either Pokémon and the battle is over, we just need to make sure that we hit first,"_ Anna reasoned with herself. _"Umbreon doesn't have enough strength to fire off another Hyper Beam but I think that there is only one attack of his that I haven't used yet, and it should work perfectly."_

"Okay Umbreon use Skull Bash, we'll finish this off now!" She called out; the eagerness in her voice was hard to hide.

"Alright Raichu, you know what to do. Just wait for it, kay?"

As the two rivals faced each other for one last time Umbreon used what energy he had left to shoot off toward the Electric-Type, a white aura forming around his head as he ran right at his opponent.

"_They're going to dodge it soon,"_ Anna reasoned as the two Pokémon got closer and closer. _"But when and where? Seeing as how they're in that heavy thing, Raichu should be slower to move, so it can't be far."_

The blunette was becoming increasingly anxious as Umbreon was closing in on the last few strides and yet Sarah still gave no order. It wasn't until the last moment that she finally said something.

"Kay, Raichu now! Sweep and into Heavy Stance 34!"

Turning his body just as Umbreon was about to hit him, Raichu slid his tail underneath the Dark-Type and just caught one of the legs with one of the angles of the tip of his tail causing the Pokémon to trip and fall onto the grass. As he continued to spin, a small flash of the now familiar electricity flowed across his body, causing his body to once again increase slightly. But by the time he started to bring a ThunderPunch down on Umbreon it wasn't as noticeable a change as the other times.

"Umbreon roll out of the way!"

Not even able to open his eyes in time enough to see where he was rolling, Umbreon barely missed what would have been a direct hit. Yet moments later he felt something wrap around his leg and creep up to his body.

"Light Stance 45," Sarah stated happily. "Your daddy's Umbreon took one of Raichu's Thunderbolts once before, but my daddy said once that Raichu's electric attacks are many times better if Raichu is touching the other Pokémon. Sorry but, I win."

Sure enough, the object that Umbreon felt crawling around the back part of his body was in fact Raichu's tail, and before the Dark-Type could wriggle his way out thousands of volts of electricity began to flow through his body as Raichu emptied what was left in his electric sacs into his opponent.

After only a few seconds the electricity stopped and Raichu fell to all fours panting hard. Umbreon on the other hand was unable to move, the force of the last attack along with the paralyzing effects prevented him from doing so. No matter how hard he tried he knew that this was the end of the battle, and finally collapsed with a deep sigh. Even in his current state he couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he realized that his attempt to impress the Espeon backfired completely. Guess he just had to wait a little while longer to find a mate of his own.

"Umbreon!" Anna shouted as she ran up to the fallen Pokémon. After looking to see if he was more-or-less okay she gave a sigh of relief as well. "I'm sorry Umbreon, but you did a great job. I'll make sure that Dad gives you plenty of rest."

* * *

Well that battle was a bit more elaborate than the usual ones that many would find in either the anime or in other fanfictions so I hope that it wasn't too farfetched for most of you. If you have any further questions I'll be happy to answer them if things weren't explained well enough for you in this chapter. The main thing that I wanted to show was not only the growth of Ash's kids and each of their individualistic styles but to show the growth of him as well since he stopped traveling and took up the reigns of the master of the Hoenn Battle Frontier.

So the next chapter will be up as scheduled and I look forward to seeing the reviews from everyone.


	5. Bittersweet Goodbyes

Looks like I didn't lose too many people with that battle and I'm glad to see that. It was meant to be a little confusing as not every detail was mentioned, so I couldn't predict how it would be taken. In the end I just went with it and hoped for the best. But as always a big thank you to all who read and reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

"So you knew about number 33?" Jake demanded of his twin after the battle was over.

"Yeah, of course. Heavy Stance 33 is something that Dad hasn't used in a real battle yet and is a complete bluff; it's actually a Light Stance that is meant to trip the opponent. It then leads into Heavy Stance 34, which if that fails leads into Light Stance 45."

"Then into Heavy Stance 64 or Light Stance 37, and it goes on for almost another five different stances."

Looking up the two saw their younger sister walking up to them with Raichu, who by this time was breathing deeper than normal but able to move without problem.

"Daddy has it all planned out to be able to finish almost any battle with that move."

Ignoring what Sarah just said, much to her frustration, Jake continued his little bought with Alex. "But she was the one to figure them out, so Dad only taught those to her! How do you know what they are?"

"Okay fine, I overheard them talking about it once. Happy?" Turning away from her brother she was about to congratulate Sarah on her win before the other adults swarmed around her and Raichu first.

"Daddy! I won!" The young Ketchum called out as she jumped into her father's arms.

"Yeah I saw honey, you did a great job. And you did as well Raichu." Ash finished off as his long time partner collapsed next to his mate, who after a lick on the cheek curled up along with him as he fell asleep. Exhaustion from the battle finally winning out.

"Yep, I did everything like you told me."

"You did great Sarah," May added in as she walked up with Sarah's egg in hand.

"Thank you Mommy!"

"I'm sorry Dad. You let me use Umbreon and I still lost," Anna said with her head down as she approached her dad and handed him the Dark-Type's Pokéball.

"You did your best, that's all I can ever ask for," Gary told her as he took the ball. "Although I told you not to underestimate her, even I didn't expect for all of that to happen. She just turned out to be the stronger trainer in the end; you'll get better when you start your own journey."

Turning back to her once opponent Anna kept her head down low. "Congratulations Sarah, and I'm sorry for being a bit too overconfident. But I won't lose next time!"

"No problem! I think you lost cause I've just been watching Daddy and doing what he does. But until I can talk to Raichu I still can't use the Adjustment System like he does."

"Can I ask you a question then?"

"Sure!"

"Dad's Umbreon is famous for being able to dodge almost any attack. How were you able to start hitting him about half-way through the battle?"

"Oh that's easy, Umbreon liked to dodge left." Lifting her finger to her mouth again, Sarah had to think a bit. "Umm, I attacked 84 times and he dodged left 51 times, right 40 times, and back 7 times. I just used one of Daddy's strategies to make him hit easier."

"Check your numbers dear," Ash commented with a small smile.

After a few moments of counting with her fingers Sarah let out a giggle. "Whoopsie, 98 times. Thanks Daddy."

"You counted all of those?" Anna asked, almost not believing her.

"Yep!"

"While it seems a little excessive, that one I can understand that at least," Gary chimed in. "But how did you predict which way Umbreon's Feint Attack was going to hit, even if you can predict which way he could dodge you shouldn't be able to dodge that attack."

"Hehe, that one is easy too. Just watch his tail."

"His tail?"

"I think that I'll elaborate on that," Ash interjected. "As you probably know, the only way to truly counter an attack that can never miss is to stop it before it hits. So the key is figuring out which way the attack is coming from, most of the times this is rather hard but I think it's because of your Umbreon's lack of challenging battles in the last few years it's developed a bit of a bad habit. Right before he disappears, his tail drops a few centimeters to the opposite side that he's going to attack from. And considering that Feint Attack almost always hits from behind it becomes easy to predict."

"Umm, yeah," Sarah paused slightly, looking a little confused. "What Daddy said."

"I think that's enough," May told everyone, interrupting the questions for now. "It's getting late and Grandma will be wondering what took us so long. Come on kids, time to get everything ready."

"And I think it's about time for us to get things ready to eat. Anna, Caitlyn do you want to help me make dinner?"

"Sure!"

"Aww, we have to go already?" Letting go of her dad, Sarah dropped down to the ground. Looking over to see that Raichu was still sleeping, she raced after her siblings and mom as they headed back for the house. Leaving Ash and Gary alone with just Raichu and Espeon lying near them.

"So you only taught them the basics huh?" Gary spoke up as the sun began to get low in the sky. "If those are the basics then we have each have a very different definition of the word."

"Well most of it really was the basics, as you probably heard anything beyond that they picked up from figuring out by themselves. It's only after that that I guide them through it. No sense in them learning the wrong way of doing something."

"But still, teaching them things like predicting attacks from the opponent's body movements isn't something many trainers learn in the first five years of their journey, let alone before they even start one."

"Okay to be fair she figured that one out by herself, I just explained it afterwards."

"Wait, a seven year old figured that out?" Gary blurted out, not even believing what he heard. After receiving a shocked look from Ash, the professor quickly regained his composure. "Sorry that was a little uncalled for, but still how can a kid of her age figure something like that out on her own?"

"Beats me," the trainer stated with a shrug. "It's just part of what I've noticed she has a natural talent for, I'm not sure if it's because of her age or whatnot but she seems to be even more observant than I am. It all started with just a question after a battle where I used Infernape. She asked why he turned one of his feet a specific way before using Flame Wheel. I had to double check just to see if she was right, and sure enough she was. I decided to hold back actually telling her what it meant thinking that it was a onetime thing, but she continued to do it, again and again for both me and my opponent's Pokémon. She even caught one with Raichu, the one Pokémon I thought we had virtually eliminated it from. So it was at that point I figured that she could understand the true use behind it. There is one other thing that she has going for her right now, a rather impressive learning curve; especially when it comes to anything involving Pokémon. She soaks up information seemingly better than a sponge, and can completely understand concepts and strategies that I've explained to her only a few times. In combination with her observant nature it combines to a rather potent approach. Even if she is just using my moves, her favorites are ones that I don't use all that often. Primarily the ones that focus on waiting and watching the opponent to learn as much as you can about it and then use that information to strike back even more effectively. If these two gifts last with her until she starts her own journey she'll be a powerful contender to either the League Tournaments or the Grand Festivals."

"You really do keep a close eye on them," the professor chuckled.

"And you don't?" Ash countered.

"Touché, alright then if those are Sarah's strong points how about Alex and Jake?"

"That one is just as easy, Alex is rather talented in being able to plan out the battles and creating, usually rather complex, strategies to go along with it. By planning ahead like that she has shown to be able to minimize her Pokémon's weaknesses while taking advantage of her opponent's. In fact, given a few years of practice, she'll be able to probably find effective counterstrategies to everyone of my Pokémon. I can only wonder how long it'll take until she finally reaches that point. Jake on the other hand seems to have a gift with the Pokémon themselves. I'm not sure how or where he gained some of that knowledge but he can pick out different physiological traits of his opponent's Pokémon and make a good assumption as to their strengths and weaknesses. He then uses that to his advantage in battle, focusing on their weak side or striking when they are most vulnerable. If they ever finally start to work together I would be hard pressed to think of a better doubles combination. Luckily for the doubles tournaments out there, I don't see that happening anytime soon."

"But from the way you talk about this it sounds as if you still favor Sarah to be the one to take on your title in the end and not Jake or Alex."

"Don't get me wrong, I have full confidence that both of them will excel in their respective fields and their natural rivalry as twins will push them further and harder than our own rivalry did all those years ago. But it is because of that very same rivalry that will narrow their views, each wants to prove that their path was better choice and neither wants to give any leeway into the argument by using some of the other's strategies. Sarah on the other hand is absorbing both styles equally and has already shown to be able to switch between them without much effort. This will give her an edge in almost any situation, allowing her to get further with less effort. If I had to place a bet, right now, on who will come out on the top in the years to come it would have to be her. But there are still several years to go before I can prove this so really anything can go in the end."

"Alright, I believe you. Like I said, even I was caught off guard at how much she knows at her age. You just have to promise to keep me up to date with not only her but her Pokémon as well."

"Fine by me, but in return I want you to keep as much of an eye on Alex and Jake as you can while they are here and keep me updated as well. Kanto news doesn't really reach Hoenn all that often."

"Daddy!"

Looking up the two men saw the very person they were speaking of running down the hill toward them, a manila envelope in her hands.

"And there's my little monster," Ash joked as he scooped her up into his arms.

"Aww, Daddy do you have to call me that too? " Sarah pouted. "Jake calls me that all the time already."

"Oh don't worry he may act like that but he's still your one and only big brother."

"Yep, I know. But he still doesn't need to call me that. Oh and Mommy wanted me to give you this before we leave."

"Oh yeah, almost forgot about this," Ash said with a chuckle. "Thanks Sarah."

"And that is?" Gary inquired.

"Part of the reason that we stopped off here," the trainer told him while handing the professor the envelope. "Brandon wanted me to give this to you to look over and give your opinion."

"Brandon did?" Gary said with a sigh. "I've told him before that I don't have enough time to look over other people's work."

"I guess he was thinking that you would be more willing if it was me handing it to you in person," Ash told him with a shrug. "Just do it this one time, if not only to give him a bit more confidence in his own work."

Looking at his old friend for a few moments Gary finally snatched the envelope from his hand. "Okay fine, but make sure to tell him that this is the first and only time."

"Your reputation precedes you almost too well."

"Don't remind me."

"Well I think it's time that we start to head out or Mommy will get angry at me, don't you think honey?"

"Yep! She's already wondering what's taking you so long."

"Blunt, isn't she?" Gary asked with a small laugh.

"You have no idea," Ash told him with a big smile. "Raichu, Espeon; time to go. You can lie down again once we reach Mom's house."

"Come on Raichu! Time to go Espeon!" Sarah called out from her perch on her father's shoulder.

Looking up Espeon nudged her mate lightly to wake him up and motioned for him to follow. Raichu was still a bit stiff from the battle but the nap had apparently done him a lot of good. Reaching to where Ash was standing the whole group started back towards the house just as the sun began to disappear behind the horizon.

* * *

"Well I hope this doesn't become a recurring event while we are here," May muttered as she stood outside the Oak's front door with what little luggage they brought with them. Alex and Jake were still inside doing who knows what, but at least she knew that they were only a call away, unlike a certain someone at that point.

"And what would that be?" Dawn asked almost unconsciously.

"Losing track of my family," the brunette responded. "First my kids and now my husband, this is turning into our trip to Olivine all over again."

"You worry too much about them, Ash can take care of himself. I mean you've known him even longer than me, and I can already list off quite a few moments. Not to mention you probably know him better than he knows himself."

"Yeah and it's exactly that reason why I worry," May half-joked while shaking her head.

"So how long are you going to be staying in Kanto?"

"We were just planning to stay until the day after tomorrow, but Alex and Jake will be heading out tomorrow. The original plan was to leave for home the same day they left but Delia convinced us to stay the extra night seeing as how we never really visit. She tried for longer but Ash needs to get back to his challengers. With him being the last Frontier Brain to beat, the trainers are always eager to challenge him as soon as possible. You'd almost think that with some of the rumors about him going around that a few of them would have second thoughts."

"Not too hard to see that one, kids will always be impatient. We both know that one all too well."

"And it's not only the kids at times."

As both women laughed at some of the references behind it their husbands just came into view with the two Pokémon and Sarah on her father's shoulders.

"So are you ready?" May asked when they got close enough.

"Yeah, Mom is probably wondering what is taking us so long," Ash responded while grabbing his bag from the ground. "And knowing her she probably already has dinner waiting for us when we get there."

"Your mom always knew how to make a feast, and she didn't even need a good reason either. I can't even remember the number of times when I visited that Delia had a large meal waiting," Dawn chuckled.

"Yeah yeah, I know," Ash waved it off, even if he knew it was true. "I think we should be heading out. It's been fun and thanks for your hospitality you two but my mom won't be too happy if we are late for dinner. Are the kids ready May?"

"They should be at least."

Almost as if on cue Alex and Jake came running out of the house with their two Pokémon in tow.

"Get back here Jake! I promised to get you back for that lick during the battle and now you're going to get it!"

"Oh do you really think that I would listen to you when you are chasing after me?" He yelled back at his sister. "If that's true then you're even stupider than I already thought!"

"I would have them apologize again but it looks as though they're already gone," Ash said rather flatly.

"Don't worry about it," Gary waved it off. "Sad to say I'm already almost used to it"

"Funny how fast you do."

"In case we don't see you again before we head home, good luck with your studies Gary and we'll be back in about a year," May said as she tried to keep an eye on where her two kids were running off to. "Although now that I think about it, you said that Anna will be ten in a couple months right?"

"Yep."

"So then there's a chance that we might be meeting up again in the Indigo League, and maybe even watching Jake and Anna facing each other in the tournament."

"I won't lie, it won't be easy for her to get all of her badges in time for the league seeing as how she will be starting a little later than most trainers but I have complete faith in the fact that she will make it," Gary beamed.

"Not to be rude but I think we have to run," Ash interrupted his friend after giving Sarah her egg back. "My two oldest are currently running the exact opposite way that they are supposed to and I think we need to catch them before we completely lose sight of 'em."

"Say goodbye to Anna and Caitlyn for us," May quickly got out as she hurried after her husband and kids. "And thanks again!"

"I don't mind Alex and Jake but I have to say that part of me is glad that they aren't ours," Gary said as soon as they were out of ear-shot. "I'm surprised that Ash hasn't gone bald from ripping his hair out dealing with them day after day."

"But for them it's probably just another normal day," Dawn added in with a sly grin as she pulled herself next to her husband. "Besides, I doubt that they ever have a dull moment when those two are home. Don't you think it would be nice to make our own house a bit more lively?"

"A bit more lively? Wait, Dawn are you thinking what I…I thought that we already discussed…" Gary stopped as he saw her grin grow wider. "Um, I think I'm going to see what Anna and Caitlyn are doing."

Watching her husband quickly retreat into the house Dawn couldn't help but start to giggle.

"It's always fun to tease him. But now that I think about it, it might be such a bad idea after all. Sorry you two but he's going to probably blame this all on you guys."

* * *

"You two really need to stop doing this," Ash scolded his kids as he nearly dragged them down the road by their arms. "You're old enough to know better, and to be quite honest, I have no clue as to how you survived a year alone together."

"Well if Jake grew up a bit we wouldn't have this problem," Alex nearly shot out at her brother.

"And if she could just get a sense of humor everything would be fine."

"That's enough!"

The two flinched at the sound of their father's voice, quieting down immediately.

"Seriously you two, let's at least keep the fighting to a minimum. I have nothing against you arguing about whether the Grand Festival or League Tournament is harder, you both chose your own path and should be proud of that, but when you get to this point it gets to be too much."

"Sorry Dad," the twins answered in near perfect unison.

"Your father isn't alone on this," May added in, walking only slightly behind the three with Sarah. "While we may be a bit too lenient on your fighting, but it doesn't make a good impression for people when the first thing they see is one of your arguments, especially people that you haven't seen in a long time. We keep telling you over and over again, and it works only for a few minutes while you both remember. Then it's back to this when the smallest thing flares up."

"So can at ask you two to make peace while we are at your grandma's house?" Ash asked them. "It's probably too much to ask for you to stop completely at this point, but while we are here as a family at least try to stop, okay?"

"I will if she will," Jake begrudgingly stated.

"And if he acts a bit more mature I will."

"How am I…"

A quick glance from his father made Jake stop and only mumble the rest. But even if neither was entirely thrilled by Ash's stern mood and wanted to get their opinions in, they weren't ones to try to test his patience any further than it already was. Even if he never really did much to punish them, the glares that he could give off have been known to scare some trainers into forfeiting and those were more than enough for the twins to comply.

Seeing that the two had calmed down, the trainer released their wrists.

"I know that you both understand why your mother and I ask this of you. Rivalry between siblings is almost natural but you need to learn not to give into it. I won't say anymore than that because you've already heard this speech countless times and I'm tired of saying it just as tired as you probably are of listening to it. Just remember to actually reflect on it this time and not just wave it off." Seeing that it was finally soaking in, for the time being at least, Ash decided to cheer them up a little. "Okay now that that's over, how about we have a little fun? Grandma's house is just at the end of this street on the left, so let's say the first one that get's there will receive a present."

Both of the twins quickly perked up at the thought, followed quickly by a hesitant look back at their father.

"But," Ash continued. "If I hear any fighting when we get there, there will be no present period, understand?"

Receiving a nod from the two of them, he couldn't help but notice their old energy starting to return.

"Well what are you waiting for? Shouldn't one of you be trying to get a head start?"

Before he even finished his sentence Alex took off with Jake not far behind, their voices nearly taunting each other the whole way there. And as always their two loyal Pokémon right at their heels.

"Are you sure that was the best thing to do right after that speech?" May asked her husband as he watched his two oldest get closer the white fence that he knew all too well.

"Hey even if we want them to behave it doesn't mean that we don't want them to have fun. Besides if this is anything like virtually every other race that they've had it'll turn out the same."

"You mean that you're expecting them too..."

"Yep, and I said all that in anticipation of it. I just hope that it doesn't turn out as one of the rare times that they don't follow their usual."

The brunette couldn't help but chuckle slightly at her husband's antics.

"In that case I better we better catch up to them soon or they might actually start up again, even after your speech."

"Just remember to not go too fast dear, you aren't just by yourself anymore."

"Ash will you stop that," May told him with an exasperated sigh. "I appreciate the concern but you go overboard at times. We have three wonderful children now and I think I can take care of myself once more."

"Need I repeat myself?" He asked with a cocky smile.

Unable to hold back, May couldn't help but follow suit as a grin came to her face as well. "Alright fine, you win. Like you always seem to do. I'll take it slow for now. Why can't I seem to be able to resist when you look like that?"

"Cause you know my reasons for doing so, and you know that I'm right. Besides it's always fun to tease you."

"Yeah yeah, I know. This isn't the first time. Now come on, Delia is probably waiting for us."

Agreeing with her, Ash was about to continue walking until he felt a slight tug on his pant leg. Looking down he saw Sarah there with her egg staring up at him.

"Daddy how much longer will it be until my Eevee hatches?"

"Well let's have a look shall we?"

Bending down to his daughter's level, Ash put a hand on the precious item that she was carrying so carefully.

"It's been shaking a little since a few days ago and it's getting warmer but it still hasn't hatched," the young brunette told him.

Sure enough the trainer could feel it. The egg was quite warm and while it wasn't shaking too much it was easily noticeable.

"Don't worry Sarah it should be soon," he said while standing up.

"But I've been taking such good care of it!" She protested. "Why hasn't it hatched yet?"

"Yes you have done a great job," Ash reassured her. "But you can't rush these things. Your little Eevee is still growing so that it can be ready for when it first leaves its egg, and when it finally does I'm sure that the first thing it wants to see is the one who has been looking after it all this time. You don't want to disappoint Eevee by asking it to leave its egg before it's ready to do you?"

"No, of course not!"

"Good, now do you remember what I've always told you about raising Pokémon?"

"Always think of them first, they are our partners and friends and we should treat them like we want to be treated."

"Very good. Then you should be just fine waiting a little while longer then right?"

"I guess…"

"Don't worry Sarah; Eevee will come out when she's ready," Ash said while taking her hand and leading her down the road. "You just make sure that you are there when she does. Now come on, your grandma probably wants to see you and your new egg."

"Kay!"

* * *

And there ya go. Not much to say this time so I hope you enjoyed the chapter and hope to see you back for the next one.


	6. The Champion's Birthday

Not much to say again so thank you to all who read and reviewed the last chapter.

* * *

When Ash and Sarah approached the house it almost seemed like a miracle, Jake and Alex were sitting on the porch casting several glances at each other but not actually fighting. They were alone, with the exception of their ever present Pokémon, apparently waiting for the two of them to make their way there.

"Well well well, I almost have to say I'm surprised," Ash said while holding back some of his laughter. "Either there was a clear winner or you two can actually get along."

"Actually Dad," Alex started, a large smile coming to her face. "We tied; we both got to the front door at the exact same time."

"And seeing as how we both got first," Jake continued. "That means that we both get a present."

It was at that point that Sarah started to giggle. "You were right Daddy, they both cheated."

The twins' smiles quickly turned to faces of shock.

"Wait, what did you say Sarah?" Alex asked her little sister.

"I heard Daddy telling Mommy that he knew who would win the race, and when I asked him who he thought would win he told me that you two would cheat so that you would both try to get a present."

Their jaws nearly hit the ground by the time Sarah finished. Of course it didn't help that even their own Umbreon and Espeon were snickering at them.

"You two have to give me a little more credit than that," Ash joked. "I wouldn't be much of a dad if I couldn't figure out my own two children. Don't think that I don't know you can get along when the time calls for it. And I knew that neither of you would resist this little temptation."

"So if you knew that we would both win, does that mean that there is no present?" Jake couldn't help but blurt out.

"Now when did I say that? I told you that the one who reaches the house first would get a present. How many times have you known me not to follow through with a promise?"

The two children's faces beamed once they heard that.

"I'll give them to you inside, come on."

Eagerly following their father, the last of the Ketchum family entered Ash's old home. It was starting to show its age in various places but Delia made sure to keep it as well kept as possible. The gardens outside still bloomed with flowers of every color and the inside was completely spotless. As Ash opened the front door an enticing scent wafted out of the home, the first signs of the feast to come.

Sitting on the couch along with Raichu and Espeon was May, happily petting the two as they cooed to her touch.

"Now there is one thing that I didn't expect," Ash said as his children sat down on the various seats around the living room. "I would have bet that you would be wanting to help Mom with the last minute preparations May."

"Well I did offer," the brunette stated with a small sigh. "But she told me that I didn't have to burden myself with it and I should just relax."

"That's my mom for you," Ash chuckled. "And if that's the case I think that it would be best not to bug her until she's done."

"So where is that present you promised us?" Jake quickly asked as soon as he saw a lull in his parent's conversation.

"Impatient aren't we? Okay then, now where did I put those?" After a few moments of searching in his bag the trainer pulled out two small boxes and handed one to each of his twins.

"Can we open them now?"

"Go right ahead. This was actually originally supposed to be a gift for when you set out tomorrow but it seemed a bit more entertaining this way."

"But what would have happened if one of us won and you had to give it to them?" Alex asked as she took off the box's lid.

"Good question, I was so sure that you two would do that after my speech I didn't even bother coming up with a back-up plan."

Not too enthused by their father's answer the twins looked into each of the boxes to see a small computer, one red and one white, each engraved with their name on it. One for Jake and Alex respectively.

"What's this? A Pokédex?" Jake asked, taking it out of the case.

"Yes, but at the same time no," Ash couldn't help but build up the anticipation that he was creating. "Those are the newest handheld data units from Silph Corporation. Depending on what you put onto them they can be virtually anything you need them to be. Open them up and turn them on, I'll explain a little more while you are doing that."

Shrugging at each other they both opened the devices to find two screens side-by-side and a few small buttons. Pushing the power button it only took a few short seconds for them to power-up. While on the right hand screen a menu came up, the left hand side actually produced a small holographic depiction of where they were on a map. Along the map there were two points that were clearly visible, both right next to each other. The sibling's eyes lit up almost as much as the screens did.

"Thanks to your godfather I was able to make sure that those were uploaded with the most current data on every discovered species of Pokémon, along with many things that aren't included in most Pokédexes. They are also equipped with the 3D map function of all the nearby regions, of which you have probably already noticed. There are several other functions but I'll allow you to find those out on your own, I just want to point out two of them beforehand. The first thing is those dots on the map; while you should be able to set it to guide you to any place you input those two should always be visible. Each represents your unit as well as the other one that your brother/sister is holding. That way if you ever get separated from each other you will always be able to find your way back. The other thing is there is a built in phonebook which I have already added a few numbers into. Besides our numbers and emergency numbers, there are several that belong to various friends that I know throughout Kanto. If you ever need advice or help don't hesitate to call or visit them, I'm sure that they would be happy to help with anything that you would ask for. And can I ask for you to not put too many games on them? Your mother and I bought those to help you train and for emergencies, not entertainment."

"Oh wow it really does have all of the Kanto Pokémon on here!" Jake cried out while searching through its database. "And Hoenn, and Johto, and even Sinnoh!"

"It even has information on all the different places to shop in each city!" His sister said not too long after.

"Well at least one of them is already using it for what we meant for," Ash muttered as he watched the two.

"Thanks Dad!"

"Don't just thank me, your mother helped out quite a bit as well."

"Thanks Mom!"

"You're welcome you two," May said. "Now go and wash up, we'll be eating soon and we have all been outside the whole day. You'll find one of the bathrooms upstairs and to your right."

"You too Sarah," Ash told her as her two older siblings went to wash up while she didn't even move.

"Aww, do I hafta?" The young girl complained, looking up from her egg.

"Yes you do. Because of that battle you probably need to most of all. And you're taking a bath tonight too."

Huffing a bit Sarah got up and followed her brother and sister.

Shaking his head, Ash made his way into the kitchen. In the room he could see a spread of food that would have been worthy of a Thanksgiving Dinner. Walking feverishly around trying to finish the last of the preparations was a brunette lady who was just starting to show signs of her hair turning grey. But even so, she didn't see any good reason to change her lifestyle as of yet, and the whole town knew how well she took care of not only her yard and home but the others of the community as well.

"You've outdone yourself yet again Mom," Ash spoke up as she put the last plate on the table.

"Oh Ash you surprised me," Delia said as she jumped slightly. "Well it's not every day that you and May come to visit so I have to make sure that the times that you do come it's special."

"Yeah sorry about that but you know that my schedule is kinda erratic."

"Don't worry I know, but before I forget. Welcome home son."

"Good to be home Mom," Ash responded while giving her a big hug.

"Grandma!"

Looking up just as three more figures ran into the room, Ash was quickly replaced by his kids as they nearly knocked Delia over in the process.

"And how are my favorite grandchildren?" Delia asked them while giving them all a hug. "Are you making sure to take care of yourselves while you're away from home?"

"Yep!" The two twins responded, not releasing their grip from their grandmother.

"And how about you Sarah? I've heard that you are taking care of your very own egg, have you been taking good care of it?"

"Of course!"

Seeing May walk into the room Delia finally let go of the children.

"Okay everyone take your seats, it's time to eat."

After everyone finally grabbed their spots and they all said grace, Ash grabbed his wine glass and stood up.

"Now before everyone starts to eat, I think that we make a toast."

"Dad what is it with you and toasting nearly every time we come home?" Alex asked, not quite understanding his reasons.

"What can I say, I like being the center of attention." Getting a small laugh from May but only sighs from everyone else, he quickly cleared his throat before continuing. "It may have been a while but Alex and Jake will be nearly following my footsteps I trekked all those years ago while first starting out with Pikachu. So let's toast not only to them having a safe trip but for visiting Grandma's house for the time in a long time."

With only a slight hesitation the rest of the family raised their glasses to complete the toast.

"I know you're probably tired of me talking so how about we enjoy this wonderful dinner that your grandma has prepared for us."

"Now that's something I can agree to," Jake said as he started to nearly shovel the food into his mouth.

"But I have a little surprise for you beforehand," Delia chimed in while stepping out of the kitchen.

"Oh come on Grandma, I'm starving," he moaned, barely resisting the rest of the food on his plate.

"Oh I'm sure that you'll like this."

As she said that the lights in the kitchen turned off and Delia entered carrying one last piece of food. Lit only by a total of eleven candles the brunette carried in a sizable cake and set it down in the middle of the table.

"Huh? I'm glad that you made us cake Grandma but I think that we have enough food as it is. Of course then again there is always room for cake," Jake swallowed, nearly drooling onto the table.

"Jake did you really forget it again?" Alex her brother, shaking her head in embarrassment.

"Forget what now?"

"Yours and Alex's birthday is only a couple weeks away," May told him with a large smile.

"Oh yeah that," he shrugged. "Guess it kinda slipped my mind. Can we eat now?"

"How can you forget our birthday?"

"Gimme a break," Jake snapped slightly at his sister. "Unlike you I never made that big a deal about our birthday. Besides with us traveling it's not like it'll be any different from any other day. Once again it'll just be us two saying it a couple times and possibly going to some restaurant to splurge slightly."

"Oh don't be that way Jake," his mother consoled him. "You should enjoy your birthdays while you can. While we can't be there to celebrate it with you, your father and I tried last year to make it special for you two and we will try again this year. Just because you are away from home doesn't mean that we don't think about you."

"So blow out your candles and make a wish, both of you," Ash said with a smile. "Let's at least have an early celebration together."

With his mood lightening a little, Jake finally gave in and with a nod to his sister blew out the candles, instantly darkening the room. A few moments later the lights came back on as Delia walked back to the table.

"Now that that's over, I think we should get this little celebration underway. Happy Birthday Alex, Happy Birthday Jake," May congratulated her two kids.

"Happy Birthday you two," her husband added.

"Alright enough of that, I'm starving. Best not to let all this good food go to waste," Jake said with a big grin. Grabbing a hold of his fork again he grabbed a few more pieces of food from the table as the first bit started to disappear from his plate.

"Yay! Let's eat!" Sarah called out before digging in as well.

"This may be for your birthday Jacob, but what have I told you about eating that fast!"

* * *

After dinner, the family cleaned up and while May was helping Sarah with her bath the rest of the family was laying in the living room. Ash was talking with his mom about what has changed since the last time he was home while his kids watched TV with their Pokémon.

"So Dad," Alex said after some time. "Um, where should we be headed first tomorrow? I think I remember you saying that Viridian City was the first place that you went to and I was wondering if there was anywhere else to start from. I mean we're here for the Kanto Grand Festival more than the Indigo League so I was just kinda wondering."

"Speak for yourself," Jake shot back. "We're here for the league not some stupid Grand Festival."

"What do you mean by…"

Without any reason whatsoever Alex quickly stopped before looking back at her father, who by this time was actually smiling at the fact that, if at least while they were here, one of them is making an effort to keep from fighting.

"I mean, well Dad?" She finished off with a nervous laugh.

"First of all thank you Alex. But as for which way you should start off, Viridian is still the best way to go. While there is a gym there you guys may want to start at the Pewter Gym first. Viridian is quite famous as the strongest gym in Kanto so Jake you will probably want to save it for last until you know more about Kanto's Pokémon. Not to mention it's also close to both here and the main road to the Indigo Plateau. As for the contests, it is still the best place to start. Nurse Joy will be able to tell you the schedule for most of the contests, or I wouldn't doubt that you could find the schedule on your new handhelds. Either way, there are really no roads leading east and with Tohjo Falls to the west you can really only take the road north or across the water south to Cinnabar."

"So we will just be following you then," Jake pondered slightly.

"Is it that much of a problem?"

"Of course not!" He beamed. "I only wish that I could have done it this way first. I want to become better than you Dad, and to do that I want to see what you saw and experience what you experienced. You went from being a nobody to one of the most decorated trainers in Hoenn. If I can just follow you part way it would be enough for me. You and Mom made our family's name famous and I don't want to let you down!"

"So you can say something smart every once and a while," Alex grinned slightly.

Jake scowled at his sister but made no verbal rebuttal.

"I'm glad that you see it that way son, your mom and I have many expectations for you but all we want is for you to enjoy yourselves, nothing more, nothing less."

Before Jake could respond a thumping sound was heard coming down the stairs as his little sister, currently dressed in one of her oversized shirts that she used for sleeping, ran down the stairs and quickly jumped into her dad's lap. Sarah's hair was still slightly wet from her bath as it stuck to various portions of her face but it didn't seem that Ash minded all that much. Her precious egg had never left her sight since she left the dinner table and was of course still with her now as she snuggled into her dad.

"So are you complaining about that bath now?" Ash asked her as she lay in his arms.

"Nope, I even got to play with Mommy!"

"Play with Mommy?"

Almost as if to answer his question the footsteps came once again from the stairs, though this time much quieter than the last ones.

Sure enough, turning around it was exactly who Ash thought it was. But he couldn't help but crack a smile when he noticed the still damp spots she had all over her clothes.

"Oh so that's what you meant," he said while turning away to hide the smirk. "Did Mommy need a bath as well?"

"Yep!"

The rest of the room couldn't hold it anymore as they all burst out laughing. And from the looks of it Sarah had done a rather good job at giving May a "bath".

"Oh come on, I didn't need a bath that badly," the coordinator joked as she sat down next to her husband.

"Sometimes Daddy says you do."

"Oh really now…"

"Hehe, only in jest dear. Only in jest," Ash nervously laughed. "Now how about we change the subject? Like how you kids will be going to sleep soon?"

A collective "aww" was quick to follow as he said those words.

"But I want to stay up a little longer," Sarah pouted.

"Yeah, me too," Jake added in.

"We're going to be leaving again tomorrow; can't we stay up just a little longer?"

"In that case I have an idea," Delia said as she got up out of the chair.

"Oh come on Mom, they don't need any excuses," Ash grumbled as she walked towards one of the closets.

Opening it she grabbed two decently sized wrapped boxes before returning and placing one in front of each of the twins.

"You can open these first," she stated simply. "Your parents may have gotten you a gift but they won't be the only ones. Happy Birthday you two."

"Mom, you really didn't need to do this," Ash tried to say as his kids quickly tore into the presets. "No, you really didn't need to do this," he repeated again after seeing the boxes' contents.

"Oh come on Son, where's the excitement in starting something new if you can't have a bit of fun? Besides, I think they like them."

Sure enough both of the kids were wide eyed at the gifts that their grandmother gave them. Inside each was a whole new set of clothes, made personally by their grandmother's skilled hands. But what was the most interesting thing about them was that the styles were very familiar to Ash and May. Apparently Delia had gotten out some old pictures, because each of the twins' clothes were virtually replicas of what their parents wore during their early travels.

"Now those bring back memories," May couldn't help but laugh as Alex held up one of the red blouses.

"Maybe but they imitate us already, we don't need them looking like young versions of ourselves."

Jake's contained clothes very similar to the ones that Ash had worn throughout his early trips trough Kanto and Johto. For Alex it looked nearly exactly like the ones the May first set out in when she joined Ash and his traveling group. Each complete with a hat and bandanna respectively. But instead of the Indigo League symbol that Ash's originally had it was emblazoned with the symbol for the Hoenn Battle Frontier, and Alex's bandanna featured the same symbol as well, just less prominently.

"Oh man I remember seeing these!" Jake cried out as he held up the blue jacket. "These are just like the ones that you used Dad!"

"Well I remember you saying that you wanted to follow in your dad's footsteps when I visited last," Delia explained. "So I thought that you might like this for when you first started to travel here in Kanto. If you don't like them I can make others for you though."

"No, we love them!" The two nearly yelled.

"I'm almost afraid to ask if you made those for them as well," Ash sighed, looking over the gifts one last time.

"Okay now that you have your presents, put them back in the boxes and get ready for bed," May stepped in for her husband. "You can try them on and everything tomorrow before you leave. As for sleeping arrangements, we think that it would be best for you two to sleep in your dad's old bedroom while Sarah will sleep in our room tonight."

Another "aww" came from the twins but Sarah was strangely silent.

"Sarah did you hear what your mom said?" Ash asked his daughter, who was still sitting in his lap.

"Daddy, I think my egg is broken."

"Huh?"

Looking down at the egg, Ash could clearly see a sizable crack running along the side of the shell.

"Don't worry honey, that's not a bad crack," he told her with a big smile. "Guess you didn't need to wait too long for it to hatch."

His daughter looked back at him, almost as if not believing his words. But after seeing his smile along with his hands on her shoulders made her finally understand that this was really happening.

"What it's actually hatching?" Jake asked as he jumped over to get a closer look.

"Hey, don't shove!" Alex yelled at him as she also tried to get closer.

"Both of you quiet down," May quickly hushed them.

The two just stared at each other until their grandmother kneeled down behind them placing a hand on each of their shoulders.

Even all of the Pokémon there were interested in the situation, with the two proud parents right up on the couch on either side of the young Ketchum.

Sarah couldn't even care less about what was going around her. She had her eyes glued to her egg as the sounds of the shell continuing to break open began to get louder. With one last large crack the egg began to glow slightly as the last part of the young Pokémon's hatching came to a close. When the light disappeared a small figure unrolled from where the oval container once was and wound up on her back in Sarah's lap, paws straight up in the air. Looking directly at the young girl, a light "Vee" escaped her lips.

* * *

And I'm guessing that many of you kinda saw this part coming, and even more of you could probably guess my reason as to why. But as of now this was the second to last chapter. I'll explain a little bit more later but I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the last one will be out in a couple days.


	7. Signs of the Future Yet to Come

And this would be the last chapter. Thanks for reading everyone and thanks again to all who chose to review.

* * *

The young Pokémon slowly opened her eyes as they adjusted to the light of the outside world. At first it was all too blurry to make anything out but as things started to clear up she saw a creature looking down at her. She cocked her head slightly just staring right back at the odd creature, but it wasn't long before her ears caught other sounds coming from behind her. Trying to twist her head to see what those new sounds were, she let out a soft "vee" in surprise as her entire body unexpectedly followed. Shaking her head after the odd experience, the young Pokémon could feel her feet touch down on something soft. Wobbling slightly, she got to her feet after a few tries and looked out across the room.

But to her complete surprise she only saw four more creatures staring at her, even several others of what she assumed to be her own kind, all of which were looking down onto her. Instinctively she dropped down to her stomach, wondering what all these creatures wanted. As they all started to make noise it only scared her even further as they inched forward. But it all seemed to pause slightly as some of that noise began to sound familiar. Without even thinking she quickly turned around and shot up towards the sound, only calming down when she found a dark spot around the creature that was making it. Satisfied that she was now safe from all of those other creatures the young Pokémon cuddled into her new spot, enjoying the warmth that the creature was giving off and at the same time taking in the unique scent that filled her nostrils. There was already something comforting about this spot, as if she knew that this was hers.

* * *

"Hey!" Sarah giggled. "Eevee stop that! It tickles!"

Sarah couldn't help but squirm a bit as the newborn's soft fur was tickling her stomach while the young Pokémon tried to make herself comfortable. After rushing to find cover, the Evolution Pokémon had found her way into the brunette's shirt, and the only thing the other family members could see was a lump moving around under the fabric.

"Come on Sarah pull it out so we can see it," Alex pleaded with her younger sister.

"Yeah, I barely even remember when Umbreon was that small," Jake added in. "I wanna see it too."

"No I think that it's best to leave Eevee be for now," Ash told his kids. "She was just born and she'll probably want to be close to Sarah for a little while longer. Seeing so many new things more than likely scared her and that's why she hid under Sarah's shirt."

"How do you know she's a girl Daddy?" Sarah asked, looking up from her new partner.

"Umm," the trainer couldn't help but stutter a bit. "I'll tell you that some other time. Now time for bed everyone. If Eevee is ready to meet everyone tomorrow we can do that then, but we will be doing it at her pace."

After pouting for only a few moments the two twins got up and gave their grandma a big hug before they and their Pokémon headed upstairs.

"And you are both sleeping on the floor!" He yelled up after them. "Neither will get the bed! Understand?"

Even without any answer he knew that they had heard. Although they may not like the idea of it, it was simply to keep them from fighting over the single bed.

"Alright honey, time for you to go to bed as well," Ash said as he turned back to his other daughter.

"Kay! But what about Eevee?"

"I think I have an idea."

The young girl let out a quick squeal as Ash picked her up bridal style. Sarah giggled slightly as she grabbed on to her father, but was quick to realize why he chose this way; even after picking her up, Eevee was still laying comfortably on her stomach.

"Now say goodnight to Grandma."

Waving from her new position, Sarah quickly grabbed back onto her father as her body started to wobble slightly.

"Goodnight Grandma!"

Smiling back at her granddaughter, Delia walked up and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Goodnight dear, sleep tight. And make sure you're careful of Eevee tonight as well. She'll be relying on you a lot in the coming days, so you need to take very good care of her."

"Kay!"

"Alright my little princess, let's go."

Carrying her up the stairs, Ash put her softly down on the queen sized bed in the house's guest room and went off to prepare for the night as well.

After coming back, the trainer couldn't help but laugh a little as he caught the sight of the little lump in Sarah's shirt make its way up her body until the Pokémon's head poked its way up out of the collar.

"Hello again," Sarah giggled as she began to scratch her new Pokémon between the ears. "My name is Sarah; I hope that we can become the best of friends."

Just stopping at the door, Ash waited and watched as Sarah started to talk to her new Pokémon.

"What are you doing out here?"

Turning around Ash saw his wife coming up the stairs, followed closely by Raichu, Espeon, and Ninetales. He quickly held a finger to his lips before motioning her to come closer.

May couldn't help but smile as well as she saw the interaction between the two. Eevee even finally got out of her Sarah's shirt to curl up on her lap, giving a large yawn in the process.

"She's taking to it like a fish to water," May whispered. "I don't think that we'll have to worry about how she raises her Pokémon."

"Just like her mother."

"You mean just like her father," the brunette couldn't help but correct. "Remember you were always the one who had a special bond with your Pokémon. It's because of you that I'm not only confident around my Pokémon but also that we can talk to Raichu."

"I don't think that I deserve that much credit," he replied sheepishly.

"Oh don't be modest," she told him with a kiss on the cheek. "You know it's true. Now I'll be joining you in just a bit."

Nodding, Ash finally walked back into the room. Sarah was still calmly petting her baby Pokémon, nearly not noticing her father entering.

"You aren't disappointed in your new friend are you?" Ash couldn't help but joke as he sat down on the bed. As per their usual Raichu and Espeon jumped up onto the bed themselves while the Fire-Type made herself comfortable on the floor.

"Of course not!" The brunette quickly covered her mouth as she said it a bit too enthusiastically. "I just hope that we can become friends, just like you have always told me."

"That's my girl." Turning toward the other two Pokémon on the bed Ash motioned for them to move closer as well. "You two have done us another great favor by allowing Sarah to care for one of your kids. I think that now is as good as any time to finally see her close up. She is yours after all."

Without much hesitation, Espeon was the first one to get up closer. It may have been her child but for at least a little while it would see Sarah as its mother more than her. Of course that didn't mean that she wouldn't keep an eye on her as well, but she trusted both her trainer and her trainer's mate knowing that they wouldn't put her new baby at any risk. Rubbing her cheek against the sleeping Eevee, she couldn't have been more proud. Just to see Sarah that happy was enough for her, and she knew that the pain and discomfort was well worth it.

Raichu on the other hand just watched over the two of them. For one, there wasn't enough room for him to get in there as well, but he was also worried that his electricity could harm the young one. Even if he was quite competent in his control over it and was still rather low from the battle earlier, he didn't want to take any chances with its tiny body.

Just as May walked into the room the two Pokémon walked off of the bed and curled up on the floor. Between Sarah and Eevee being in the bed along with it only being a queen instead of the king that Ash and May had back in Hoenn, it would have been a little cramped for space if they stayed up there.

"Alright everyone, time to go to sleep. We have a big day tomorrow and everyone needs their rest," May announced as she turned off the lights.

Pulling back the covers, Sarah slipped in between her two parents while putting Eevee on her pillow for safety.

"Thanks Mommy, thanks Daddy," she said to them both, along with a big hug, seemingly out of the blue.

"What was that for?"

"For giving me Eevee's egg. I know that I shouldn't have one but I already know that she'll be a great partner and I can't wait til' we can start battling together."

"You're welcome sweetie, now get some sleep," Ash told her as she curled up into him.

"But I'm not all that tired," she nearly sighed as her breathing slowed. It wasn't long before she was out just like her new Pokémon.

"You too May," Ash insisted. "You never did like seeing them leave like that so you need your sleep as well."

"And you're one to talk," she grinned. "You hate seeing it as much as I do, you just don't show it."

"Guilty as charged," he said with a big yawn. "Goodnight May."

"Goodnight Ash."

* * *

"Jake don't steal the last piece of bacon!"

"What, I'm still hungry and you still have some on your plate anyways!"

"But you've eaten most of it already! You don't need anymore!"

"What have we told you about arguing at the table?"

Looking up from their meal, the twins saw their mother walk into the kitchen, showered and ready for the day.

"Not to mention I'm surprised that you two are up this early," shaking her head May just put it aside. "Never mind, just finish eating. Did you need any help Delia?"

"No I'm fine May, you just sit down and eat as well," the lady insisted. "I was up even before those two and knew that everyone would be hungry when they got up."

"You spoil us just like you spoiled Ash," the brunette joked as she grabbed some pancakes from the center of the table.

"So where are Sarah and Dad?" Alex asked as she grabbed for some more waffles, just barely before her brother. "I want to see Eevee once more before I leave."

"Last I saw your sister was still sleeping and your father should just have gotten out of the shower. Don't worry, you'll see Eevee soon enough."

After a few minutes the creaking of steps gave way to two more coming into the kitchen. Ash was dressed and ready for the day but Sarah was still rubbing her eyes and yawning. Yet even still she carefully carried a fully awake Eevee in her arms.

"Aww come on Jake, you woke me up from a good dream," the brunette complained as she sat down at the table, putting Eevee on her lap. "Couldn't you fight with Alex a little quieter?"

"Me? But Alex was just as loud!"

"Oh that's enough," Ash scolded as he sat down as well. "Just eat your breakfast. You'll be leaving in only a couple hours and you don't want to leave on an empty stomach do you?"

Grumbling something about always being the one who was blamed he returned to his plate.

"Hey someone took my eggs!"

"You were having such a wonderful conversation I thought that you were done eating," Alex sarcastically stated as she took one last fork-full of the food into her mouth. "Besides that was for my bacon that you ate."

"What do you mean your…"

Both quieted both real fast after a sharp word from their father, but even still they continued to glare at each other for the rest of the meal.

* * *

After breakfast the two twins washed up as well and spent the remaining time trying to play with Eevee. But much to their dismay the little Pokémon never was willing to go too far from Sarah.

As the hour for them to leave approached, Alex and Jake changed one last time into their new traveling clothes and met the rest of their family and Pokémon outside.

"You look exactly like your mother when I first met her back in Littleroot all those years ago," Ash told his daughter as she walked out of the house. "But then again she did have a different hair style; and now that I think about it, I probably could have fallen for her even faster if she had that look on."

Letting out a small whimper as May elbowed him in the gut, he still couldn't help but laugh.

"What about me Mom?" Jake asked as he opened the jacket some. "Do I look like Dad did when you met him?"

"Not quite dear, when I met your father your grandmother had already made him a different outfit, so I never really saw those except in pictures. But even still I'd have to say that it was pretty close to what I've seen."

Both children beamed at the compliments before running up and hugging their parents.

"Now, that aside I think that you guys know the drill," Ash said firmly. "Call us when you get to Viridian and at least once a week after that. Watch out for each other and…"

"Yeah, yeah; we know Dad," Alex interrupted him. "You told us this the last time we left."

"And by the time that you come back to prepare for the tournaments you'll probably get to meet your new baby brother or sister," May added while rubbing her stomach a bit.

"I really do hope that it's a boy," Jake muttered. "I don't need a third sister teaming up on me."

"Okay then, did you remember everything?" Their father asked after Jake stopped. "Pokémon, spare Pokéballs, your new data units, clothes…"

"Yep, yep, yep, and yep."

"Then it sounds as if you two are ready then." Walking up and hugging them both, Ash and May stepped back a bit to look upon their not-so-young children again.

"Mommy, Daddy, I want to go with them."

Looking back down at their youngest, Sarah's comment surprised both of them.

"You want to go with them Sarah?" Ash asked. "What made you think of this?"

"Well they get to go on all these great adventures and I wanna too."

Ash and May couldn't help but hold back some of their surprise as to how Sarah was characterizing their travels.

"Besides, Uncle Max went with you so why can't I?"

"Well for one Uncle Max was still a year older than you," May stated. "Not to mention I couldn't take all my children leaving at this point," she added quietly.

Smiling a bit after hearing what May said, Ash finished it off for her. "And Uncle Max also didn't have a baby Pokémon to take care of. That is the biggest reason as to why we have to say no. It wouldn't be fair to Eevee to all of a sudden bring her along like that when you don't even know what to expect."

"I guess…" She replied while looking at the happy bundle of fur in her arms.

"We'll see about next year though."

"Really?!"

"Yep."

Catching his wife's death glare, Ash quickly added at least another condition.

"But I can't promise that you will be able to, it all depends on a lot of other things."

"Thanks Daddy!"

"As for you two, I think you should start heading out. If you're lucky you can reach Viridian by nightfall."

"Thanks again for everything Mom and Dad," Jake said as he gave one last hug to his parents. "I promise to do better this time around."

"Yeah, thanks again," Alex said as she repeated her brother's actions.

"You two just make sure to stay safe," May told them.

"And make sure to win all those badges and ribbons. Your mother and I have already opened up a space in the study for them next to your first ones. I always did want to see two sets of Kanto badges in there."

"Bye Sarah," Alex said as she gave her sister a hug, remembering to be careful of Eevee. "You make sure to take real good care of her, okay?"

"Kay!"

"See ya in a few months little monster," Jake added to his little sister as he started to walk off, with Umbreon right behind. "Just remember that I'll beat you next time we battle."

"I'm not a monster!" The brunette yelled back at him while stamping her foot on the ground.

"Okay then, how about demon?"

"Daddy!"

Laughing, Jake quickly began to sprint away as Alex said goodbye to her grandmother before jogged after her brother to catch up to him, her own Espeon following as always.

"Bye grandma! Thanks for the food!" Jake called back as he picked up the pace. "See ya in a few months!"

"Bye everyone!" Alex yelled one last time before turning north again. "Jake wait up! You don't need to run right after we leave!"

"And there they go again," May sighed as they got further and further away. "Once again on their own and slowly moving even further away from us."

"Now you know that this would happen," her husband comforted her after putting an arm on her shoulder. "They'll be back, it's only a matter of time."

"I know."

Hearing a large yawn everyone looked down at the young Eevee, already starting to curl back up into Sarah's arms to fall asleep.

"Come with me Sarah," Delia told her. "We can find a place for her to sleep and then I can show you how to make a blanket to keep her warm."

Nodding the young girl followed her back into the house, leaving just Ash, May, and their three Pokémon.

"Now Ash what was that about letting Sarah leave with those two next year?"

Ash couldn't help but gulp a little and start to pull away from his wife. He knew that tone all too well by this point. The very thought of it brought back rather vivid memories that sent shivers down his spine. At least this time she didn't have any knives on hand.

"It was just a thought," he tried to defend himself as he backed away slowly. As any smart husband knows, there is always something to fear above all else at times, your wife. Ash just had a few more reasons than most men did. Even the great Arena Master knew when he was facing a battle he could never win.

"I had a hard enough time seeing two of my children leave! I don't want my only other one to leave as…where do you think you're going?!"

"Um, I'm going to see if Mom or Sarah need any help," he quickly lied, bolting for the house.

"Ash Ketchum you get back here when I'm talking to you!"

"_Is it too much to wish for the next six months to go by a little faster?"_ He asked himself before closing the door behind him. _"But either way I'm still going to get it tonight, there's no denying that. I hate it when she puts me into these no-win situations."_

But seeing Sarah happily lying on her stomach on the couch while watching Eevee sleep brought a smile back to his face.

"_Then again it is worth it in the end. I have three wonderful kids, and a currently furious wife, but at least for the moment I can't complain. That particular moment will come a little later, when May finally catches me. Let's just hope that I can survive long enough to see the reason for this all."_

_

* * *

  
_

And that would be the end. I can guess that many of you would have assumed that I was going to continue into the twins' journey through Kanto but my reason is rather simple. I'm not confident enough to be able to come up with enough new material that is different enough from what the anime has already done to keep my readers interested while keeping up with the standards that I have set for myself. This same reason has caused me to have to break a promise with a friend from this site a while back so it's not something that pertains to just this story. I would rather have you guys be disappointed in me for not continuing instead of you getting bored by ranting off random encounters all the way through Kanto.

That being said, considering the fact that apparently many of you enjoy my characterization of the Ketchum family there is the possibility of doing a short one involving the twins in the future. I can't vow for this but I enjoy the characters and would like to expand on a few areas that I wasn't able to in this one. Considering the amount of new characters that I had to define as well as redefine old ones, there were many of them that had to take the back seat for this story. Namely the Pokémon, and in particular May's Espeon and the twins' Eeveelutions.

Might as well end it here before I rant on too long. Thank you to all who read this and more thanks to those who reviewed. I'm not sure when my next one will come out but I doubt I can stop writing these just yet. Til' next time.


End file.
